Atlanta Archives - Chicago Reader

Chicago drill icon Lil Durk leans into his melancholy on Just Cause Y’all Waited 2

by Leor Galil May 15, 2020February 2, 2023

Chicago rapper Lil Durk dropped his debut mixtape nearly nine years ago, and he’s since matured into one of drill’s most consistent, influential, and successful artists. His four previous major-label full-lengths have all peaked in the top 50 of the Billboard 200, including August’s Love Songs 4 the Streets 2, which debuted at number four. […]

Music

Rising drill star King Von refines his storytelling and stunting on Levon James

by Jack Riedy April 10, 2020August 18, 2021

Sharp songwriting and bombastic delivery have made King Von one of fastest-rising stars in drill, the pummeling hip-hop subgenre born in Chicago. Born Dayvon Bennett, the 25-year-old rapper grew up in Englewood, and he’s been filling his verses with crime-fiction narratives at least since his breakout single, 2018’s “Crazy Story.” As he told Genius in […]

Music

Atlanta’s Young Thug remains a peerless force in modern hip-hop

by Leor Galil October 17, 2019August 18, 2021

Young Thug doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone anymore. In the early 2010s he emerged from the hotbed of Atlanta, the city that’s largely set hip-hop’s tone this decade, and his every heart-wrenching warble and hair-raising screech seemed to add speed to his ascent. His fluid flow has inspired some of Atlanta’s latest rising […]

Music

On their Sub Pop debut, Atlanta postpunks Omni make skeletal sounds feel full of possibilities

by Leor Galil October 17, 2019August 18, 2021

As Atlanta trio Omni have readied their Sub Pop debut and third LP overall, Networker, I’ve had as much fun parsing the lineage of their sparse, anxiously playful postpunk as I’ve had listening to their catalog. Longtime Reader critic Peter Margasak has compared the band’s sound to the feverish early-80s output of Scottish indie label […]

Music

Sequoyah Murray was born to make uncategorizable pop

by Noah Berlatsky September 26, 2019August 18, 2021

Twenty-two-year-old Atlanta singer and multi-instrumentalist Sequoyah Murray grew up in a musical family, and you can tell. He makes music the way a dolphin swims—effortlessly, playfully, and with supreme confidence. Murray’s remarkable debut full-length, Before You Begin (Thrill Jockey), recalls Prince not so much in its approach or themes as in its ambitiously openhearted eclecticism. […]

Music

Lil Keed brings new dimensions to Atlanta’s syllable-blurring hip-hop

by Leor Galil September 13, 2019August 18, 2021

Rising rapper Lil Keed grew up along Cleveland Avenue in Atlanta’s Zone 3 neighborhood, which has also been home to one of the most colorful and creative forces in the past decade of hip-hop: Young Thug. At 21, Keed is part of a youthful crop of Atlanta MCs who’ve studied Thug’s work and learned how […]

Music

The return of Katie Got Bandz

by The TRiiBE July 31, 2019August 18, 2021

Four long years after her last mixtape, drill queen Katie Got Bandz drops Rebirth—and revisits the site of the Bronzeville projects that taught her to persevere.

Music

J.I.D makes jittery rap for the mainstream and beyond

by Noah Berlatsky July 26, 2019August 18, 2021

In the very crowded landscape of Atlanta rap, J.I.D is instantly recognizable. His stage moniker comes from a childhood nickname that was short for “jittery.” That word is also a good description of his flow—he races from word to word with a slightly nasal tone and profanely wiggy enthusiasm. His most recent album, DiCaprio 2 […]