You should’ve heard about Saba by now. Since appearing on Chance The Rapper’s now-iconic Acid Rap project, the 19-year-old artist and leader of Chicago’s newest Hip-Hop clique, PIVOT, has reinvigorated his art while preparing for the release of his upcoming project, COMFORTzone. Continue reading Saba: “Burnout” (Feat. Eryn Allen Kane)
|ALBUM|ProbCause’s ‘WAVES’ Puts On For Chicago
I’d argue that few people in America are having a better few days than Chicago’s ProbCause. In the past week he arrived home from a nationwide tour with dance duo Cherub, released his latest project WAVES via SPIN and graduated with his Master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Not bad. Continue reading |ALBUM|ProbCause’s ‘WAVES’ Puts On For Chicago
|VIDEO| Alex Wiley: “Ova”
Alex Wiley burst onto the Chicago Hip-Hop radar last year with his debut project, Club Wiley, as the initial signee to local independent label Closed Sessions. Since the new year, Wiley has dropped a steady line of content, and his latest video for “Ova”, shot by Visual Mecca, is a reflection of that growth. Continue reading |VIDEO| Alex Wiley: “Ova”
|VIDEO|Donnie Trumpet: ‘Pasadena’ & Vic Mensa: ‘Down On My Luck’
If you don’t know Donnie Trumpet by now, you will very soon. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re unknowingly already a fan of his work. The artist sometimes known as Nico Segal has been working incessantly since the break up of Kids These Days, the band that spawned Vic Mensa and Marrow, and today delivers an artistic visual in the form of “Pasadena,” which you can watch below. Continue reading |VIDEO|Donnie Trumpet: ‘Pasadena’ & Vic Mensa: ‘Down On My Luck’
‘Acid Rap’ – A Year Later
April 30, 2013 was a sunny day, one of the first nice days we’d had to that point in Chicago and appropriately so. Chance The Rapper, Chicago’s prodigal son in the post-Derrick Rose world, was set to release his largest project to date and it seemed as if there was no one in his hometown who wasn’t aware. Living with “Brain Cells”, “Good Ass Intro” and “Cocoa Butter Kisses” producer Peter CottonTale at the time, I had certainly heard my share of the tracks on the project, understood it was to be something special. Pulling up to the clothing boutique Jugrnaut in the city’s South Loop though, the line was mind-blowing, five wide and around the block anxiously waiting for a chance to, see Chance. Continue reading ‘Acid Rap’ – A Year Later
OBIT: Remembering Chicago Footwork Pioneer DJ Rashad
Photo by Allen Daniels
I met DJ Rashad for the first time in the basement of my house in Chicago. In town just before Christmas after getting off tour with Chance The Rapper and crew, Rashad had stopped through our welcome home/holiday party. Continue reading OBIT: Remembering Chicago Footwork Pioneer DJ Rashad
Wu Tang Clan, Chance The Rapper To Headline Summer Set 2014 Lineup
Well, if South by Southwest wasn’t the official starting bell for festival season then Coachella certainly set things off last weekend as seemingly everyone and their mother descended upon Indo, California for the annual star hangout. Continuing with the roll out of the 2014 crop of mega-shows was the announcement today of Phase 1 of Summer Set Music Festival in Somerset, Wisconsin. Continue reading Wu Tang Clan, Chance The Rapper To Headline Summer Set 2014 Lineup
THEMPeople: ‘Smoke Breaks IV’
Smoke Breaks IV by Chicago production collective THEMpeople is less a traditional project than it is a collection of what and who you should be listening to for the next few months. Continue reading THEMPeople: ‘Smoke Breaks IV’
Leather Corduroys: “Porno Music Volume 2: TSFR EP
Chicago natives and SAVEMONEY brethren Joey Purp and Kami de Chukwu–better known as Leather Corduroys–dropped a project bursting with heat last night in their single volume Porno Music Volume 2: TSFR EP. Fans can thank a Chance The Rapper post deep in the annals of Reddit for the download. Continue reading Leather Corduroys: “Porno Music Volume 2: TSFR EP
|The Chicago Narrative| Alex Wiley Rises to the Occasion
Alex Wiley was one of the first artists in Chicago I felt some sort of friendship with. Having been to Soundscape a few times to interview him/spend time with him in late 2012 while I was working on a story about the young artist signed to local independent label Closed Sessions, I knew to take things Wiley said with a grain of salt, and that if it was cold out he was probably posted on the black leather couch with his red winter jacket on. A self-purported rapper since he dropped out of high school to pursue his craft, Wiley has been at the center of much of the hip-hop music that has emanated from the post-drill scene that has taken over the city since Acid Rap dropped almost a year ago. Continue reading |The Chicago Narrative| Alex Wiley Rises to the Occasion
Jake Krzeczowski 