If you’ve been really paying attention to my writing and the Midwest music scene, you may have heard of Eryn Allen Kane. If not, you’ll most definitely remember her once you have. The 23 year old singer/songwriter has spent the past year quietly working on her debut project in the annals of Chicago’s Fox & The Mule studios. With the project nearly ready and slated for a Spring release, Kane and co. decided to release this video for “Hollow”, a vocal avant-garde piece, inspired by expressionist paintings and shot by the talented Austin Vesely. Continue reading |Video| Eryn Allen Kane: “Hollow”
|Interview| Aaron Cohen Grows Earns His ‘Potential Fans’
New York City has long been a dreamer’s city, a place where many a success was made and many a pipe dream shuttered. When it comes to hip-hop, it’s essentially Mecca. It’s where the music first took root, where B-boys and MC-ing first became popular. Because of that, NYC has long been seen as the place to make it, if looking to do so, as Jay-Z has reminded us for years. Seattle native Aaron Cohen made his way to the Big Apple looking for new opportunities aabout six years ago, diving into the bubbling scene that has many calling the current period the latest in a long line of hip-hop renaissances that have taken place in the birthplace of rap music. With an unapologetic rhyming style and an intimidating beard to match, Aaron Cohen hustled his way to the forefront of the underground scene in his adopted hometown. November 11, the Decon signee dropped his latest project, Potential Fans, a thrashing, complete project that stands to prove why Cohen deserves his own lane in the greater landscape of hip-hop today. I had a chance to catch up with the owner of the best facial hair this side of Action Bronson last week as he was getting off work and on the heels of the release of his latest project. It’s easy to feel the passion and drive in every word Cohen spits and speaks, check out my talk with one of the latest artists to emerge from the bubbling cauldron that is New York City today. Continue reading |Interview| Aaron Cohen Grows Earns His ‘Potential Fans’
Interview with The Tontons at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013
Photography by Niraj Mehdiratta
Bands, in large part, reflect the scenes from which they come. This sentiment rings true for indie band The Tontons, who helped to open this weekend’s Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas with a pair of sets opening for Kurt Vile on Thursday night and another on Friday, as well as dropping their new video “Veida” on the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. The trip to Texas’ capital for the 8th annual music, comedy and action sports fest wasn’t a long one for the four-piece act from Houston, although it was the first time playing the three day end to festival season. Continue reading Interview with The Tontons at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013
Vic Mensa Takes Over The Innanetape
Photo by FragdFilms
It’s ten o’clock at night in late March and I’m fighting sleep. Sitting almost horizontal on a massive, black leather couch as my photographer, Bryan Lamb, and I watch Chance the Rapper racing back and forth from the booth behind us to the computer in front of us, occasionally taking frantic puffs from his cigarette.
His counterpart, Vic Mensa, lounges on a couch nearby, staring intently at a Macbook perched carefully on his lap, analyzing the first cut of the video for “DiditB4”, the lead single off his September 30 release, Innanetape directed by fellow Savemoney member Austin Vesely. The pre-rendered cuts are too quick for the computer and the screen stops on a scene of Mensa, in a white coat and goggles, holding a cow brain. “That shit was too raw, Austin drove to some farm to get it,” said Mensa. Continue reading Vic Mensa Takes Over The Innanetape
Photo & Video of Chance The Rapper’s ‘Social Experiment Tour’
Photo & Video by FragdFilms
Chance The Rapper opened his debut headlining Social Experiment tour two and a half hours south of his hometown of Chicago on Friday October 25. Photographer/videographer Bryan Lamb and myself made the trip and were on hand for all the festivities as Chance and crew kicked things off at the University of Illinois. A majority of Save Money made the trip south, joining Chano onstage was none other than Vic Mensa who himself is currently between tours with J. Cole and Disclosure. Continue reading Photo & Video of Chance The Rapper’s ‘Social Experiment Tour’
|Interview| Getting to Know Producer Nate Fox
A year ago, Nate Fox was living in Pittsburgh, working on a construction site. That all changed on April 30 when Chance The Rapper released his critically-acclaimed project, Acid Rap, featuring production from Fox. The past four months have taken him far from that manual labor life, traveling the country and then the world on the strength of his production and the success of Chance’s latest release. To say it has been a long road is not an overstatement, after ten years plugging away in his native Pittsburgh and later Cleveland, Fox caught the ear of Chancellor with his beat for the Acid Rap single “Juice” with its quirky, bouncing, up-tempo beat. The rest is quickly becoming history as Fox and a talented team of producers including Peter CottonTale and Cam Osteen head back out on the road with Chance for his headlining Social Experiment tour. I got the opportunity to catch Fox while he was in Chicago preparing for the tour and had a chance to catch him for a few minutes between a salad and a session. Read about the crazy path his life has taken in 2013 and what lays ahead, below. Continue reading |Interview| Getting to Know Producer Nate Fox
|Interview| Borgore Isn’t All That Impressed
To ask Borgore, nothing is too surprising anymore. Having spent a lifetime working in an aroudn music, the early prodigy (he earned a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley for music at 17) is having the time of his life making music that gets people moving. The Israel native joined Steve Aoki, Pharrell and Waka Flocka Flame for the Fall “Aokify America” tour, which started last Friday with a show at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion. Continue reading |Interview| Borgore Isn’t All That Impressed
|Interview| Jay Dot Rain Puts Alabama Back on the Map
Jay Dot Rain is on his hustle. He has to be. Coming from Alabama, Jay Dot isn’t privy to the kind of immediate exposure or fanfare that artists from larger metropolitan areas enjoy on the regular. Despite this, the Alabama A&M senior has garnered attention from the likes of DJBooth and Complex in recent months in the lead up to his well put together mixtape, Memoirs of a Young Dreamer, released October 2. Continue reading |Interview| Jay Dot Rain Puts Alabama Back on the Map
|Review| Vic Mensa: “Innanetape”
The thing that has always attracted me to Vic Mensa and his music has been his penchant for being different, his eagerness to push forward and his unwavering ability to make a stand for what he believes in. Those qualities and more manifested themselves fully on his latest project, INNANETAPE, released September 30. Continue reading |Review| Vic Mensa: “Innanetape”
|Video| Z Money: “Ignorant”
Chicago’s West Side produced one of the city’s quickest-rising stars last summer when local artist Z Money dropped a pair of mixtapes, Rich B4 Rap and Heroin Musik that took the underground hip-hop scene by storm and placed the 20-year-old restauranteur firmly in line as the next thing to blow from the Windy City. Currently preparing to up the ante on his dual release, Z Money is currently hard at work in the studio preparing to release a trio of projects simultaneously, while also getting ready to travel south to Austin for SXSW. Continue reading |Video| Z Money: “Ignorant”
Jake Krzeczowski 