Category Archives: Music

Rap Duo Mother Nature Are Enjoying The SZNZ


MO-nature-lede

Photos by Keeley Parenteau 

Defined as “nature personified as a creative and controlling force,” no term better describes the rap duo of Klevah and TRUTH, than Mother Nature.

The Chicago rap pairing has been manifesting their realities through their creativity for years and continued to do so with the release of their full-length album, SZNZ , with local record label Closed Sessions.

Since arriving in Chicago, Mother Nature has gone about growing deep roots in the city that go beyond the music scene. True students of hip-hop that believe in and preach the power of the genre, they’ve established themselves as progressive idealists that do the work. That’s all reflected in their music.

Continue reading Rap Duo Mother Nature Are Enjoying The SZNZ

 Rising K-Pop Star MRSHLL Talks Newly Released ‘Archives 1’ in Q+A

MRSHLL-1

People always say write what you know and that’s why I typically like to stick to covering artists I know in some regard. With that in mind, I found myself on a Zoom call a couple of months ago late at night with a singer from Seoul. Over a brief conversation, I was introduced to burgeoning K-Pop star MRSHLL and been paying attention since. The multifaceted singer/songwriter has garnered a massive following in South Korea where his unique blend of soul-influenced pop has found a welcome audience. With a new full-length on the horizon, he released Archives 1 last week, a collection of previously recorded singles, bundled together for the first time. 

Continue reading  Rising K-Pop Star MRSHLL Talks Newly Released ‘Archives 1’ in Q+A

 How Vic Mensa Found Peace Through His Pursuit of Happiness

 How Vic Mensa Found Peace Through His Pursuit of Happiness

Photos by Keeley Parenteau

Originally Appeared as Summer Cover Story for Elevator Magazine

In the early morning hours of a brisk Los Angeles February 2018, Vic Mensa sat in his car on Mulholland Drive wondering if he should drive it over the edge. Seemingly on top of the world, with a Kanye cosign, Saturday Night Live appearance, and all the shows, followers, and attention one could want, Mensa was ready to call it.

The drugs, the women, the fast life had become too much. It’s not easy to reach your dreams before you can really understand them. Feeling attacked, misunderstood, and uninspired in life while dealing with all the addictions possible, he gripped the wheel, moved his foot off the gas, and took a deep breath.

“Everything was magnified and that shit just got to be too much where it was like I didn’t love it. I remember I was sitting in my car and I was like man I’m driving this bitch off the cliff,” Vic said, explaining his thinking at the time. “ at that time resistance was kicking my ass and whenever I felt resistance I would just go snort some pills or some goddamn molly or drink and fuck some pornstars, do a club appearance. But I was doing everything except for honestly and satisfyingly expressing myself, doing what I love to do.”

A while back Mensa gotStill Alive” tattooed across his stomach, a personal mantra that kicked in when he was at his lowest.

“I was like man I’m driving this motherfucker off the cliff and then the next month after being really fucking low I got through it.”

Continue reading  How Vic Mensa Found Peace Through His Pursuit of Happiness

Amare Symone Is Here To Stay

The 21-year-old singer’s worldview and lineage manifest on her latest album.

by • Jake Krez photos • Timmy Risden

wardrobe • Big Hair Big City

(February 27, 2019) Amare Symone introduces herself to the world by alternating between hellos and goodbyes on her latest album, Hello Heathrow. It’s fitting. She’s been doing both through her music for most of her life. Bouncing from one coast to the next before settling in Chicago, Symoné’s family naturally instilled a sense of wanderlust in young Amare that has manifested itself into a centerpiece of the music she’s creating two decades later.

At different points in life, it was fair to wonder where you might run into Amare: hanging off Division near Young Chicago Authors, on the subway back to Brooklyn, crossing the Thames. With an array of experiences in her rearview, she’s setting up shop back here in Chicago, settling for a moment, looking determinedly forward.

Continue reading Amare Symone Is Here To Stay

LILI K’S MUSICAL JOURNEY COMES FULL CIRCLE ON ‘SONGS WITH FRIENDS’

words • Jake Krez
photos • Keeley Parenteau

(June 19, 2019) Chicago’s a city long known for both its unique musical diversity as well as its ability to innovate from them. It’s never too hard to spot an artist that’s spent time here. For classically-trained jazz musician Lili K arriving on the cusp of the local Chicago creative renaissance that would span nearly a decade, the city has been a huge part of her growth over the years. But to truly breakthrough both with herself and the world at large, it took getting away . Her long-awaited return came last month in the form of her first album since 2015, the eclectically free-spirited and aptly-named, Songs with Friends.

With nearly a decade in the game, the Milwaukee native has scouted the top and bottom end of what the music industry has to offer. Having built a name and an extensive catalogue over the last five years, she’s checked most of the boxes possible for an independent act. Now, four years removed from her last release, Ruby, the multifaceted vocalist is primed for what many might consider a comeback. Being forgotten is easy. It happens everyday. Persevering, meanwhile, is often harder to do. With Songs With Friends in the world, she isn’t worried about any of that. Lili’s just now starting to have fun with it.

Continue reading LILI K’S MUSICAL JOURNEY COMES FULL CIRCLE ON ‘SONGS WITH FRIENDS’

Toronto’s Grandson Asserts Himself with Genre-Blending Sound

By now it’s not surprising at all to hear of a new, exciting act coming out of Canada. OVO and a steady contingent of artists from indie to full-fledged pop have positioned our northern neighbors as new-age proprietors of a range of sounds that have come to pace a sort of unique cross-pollination of genres that often find new understanding within its borders. While the R&B and Hip-Hop spaces have been packed full of card-carrying Canadians for some time, it was the brash, unapologetically rock-influenced sounds of 23-year-old Grandson that caught my ear. Having only begun to step out as of late with a string of talented singles that speak to his careful interplay of established motifs, Grandson is proving that rock isn’t quite dead yet.

Continue reading Toronto’s Grandson Asserts Himself with Genre-Blending Sound

How Social Experiment Producer & Trumpeter Nico Segal Formed Jazz Fusion Group The JuJu Exchange

For 23-year-old Grammy Award-winning producer/trumpeter Nico Segal, progression has often come from home. Whether physically or musically, the Chance The Rapper collaborator has made a name for himself by working alongside longtime colleagues and experimenting with music first introduced to him before high school in his native Chicago. His latest endeavor, a new-age jazz fusion group named The JuJu Exchange, acts as a perfect continuance of a career made by listening to his heart and playing music with his friends. This time around, he’s looking to make a new kind of statement musically by returning to his roots. Continue reading How Social Experiment Producer & Trumpeter Nico Segal Formed Jazz Fusion Group The JuJu Exchange

Chance the Rapper Celebrates Birthday by Holding Special Charity Event With Friends: Recap

Originally Appeared on Billboard

Reflecting on a historical year-long run that saw him ascend to the national throne, win three Grammys and assert himself as one of the world’s biggest stars, Chance the Rapper comfortably raised a glass to the crowd at Studio Paris in Chicago’s River North neighborhood on Sunday night (Apr. 16). As the clock rounded midnight and bottles with sparklers flew in from every direction — via waitresses dressed in brown overall and matching ‘3’ hats — the MC toasted those packed shoulder-to-shoulder before him and turned his sights towards 24 alongside longtime friends, and Ludacris and T-PainContinue reading Chance the Rapper Celebrates Birthday by Holding Special Charity Event With Friends: Recap

Chance the Rapper Creates New Arts Fund for Chicago Public Schools

Chance the Rapper made headlines Friday (March 31) by announcing new plans to help support Chicago Public Schools. Calling a press conference for 2:30 p.m. at Paul Robeson High School on the city’s South side in Englewood, the Chicago native took another step forward in his fight to get the funding CPS deserves by teaming up with the Chicago Bulls to donate another $1 million to schools, alongside a new fund to support the arts in Chicago and added donations from his end. Continue reading Chance the Rapper Creates New Arts Fund for Chicago Public Schools

Double Door Closes, Signifying End Of Wicker Park As We Knew It

And so it is. After a long and well-documented battle against current landlords, the owners of the Double Door were finally served an eviction notice, delivered by the sheriff who subsequently had the locks changed. So ends a chapter in the history of Wicker Park, once a bastion for local artistry, now simply a continuation of the nearby Loop that seems to be creeping increasingly upward along Milwaukee Ave.  Continue reading Double Door Closes, Signifying End Of Wicker Park As We Knew It