Davis the Dorchester Bully isn’t rapping too fast—you’re listening too slow. As the Chicagoan says on “Virginia,” a track from his new album with Detroit producer Foule Monk, “Life is as simple as it seems.” And so are his rhymes, even when he serves them up with moments of head-whipping banter. That collaborative album is […]
Tag: Chicago Hip-Hop
Posted inMusic
Chicago alternative hip-hop group Bonelang shoot for the moon with Nervous Oracle
Chicago alternative hip-hop group Bonelang seem to want to make hip-hop that sounds like anything but hip-hop. The core duo, MC Samy.Language and producer-vocalist Matt Bones, both split the difference between rapping and singing—they often enunciate their pristine, staccato verses like they’re delivering a solo in choir or talk-singing in a Broadway musical. They also […]
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Chicago rapper Supa Bwe demonstrates the unity of the personal and political on No Thanks
Supa Bwe’s ear for melody and taste for sweet hooks make him one of the city’s best rappers. Since breaking out in 2014, he’s amassed a cult audience with performances that blend screamo intensity and R&B sensuality, and he was doing it years before Soundcloud rap introduced a cohort of shouty rappers who sounded like […]
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David Weathersby, documentary filmmaker
David Weathersby is a filmmaker and founder of video production company City Vanguard, which focuses on documentaries about underrepresented communities of color. In 2018, he received a Black Excellence Award for The Color of Art from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, and in 2019, his documentary Thee Debauchery Ball won the audience award […]
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Vlogger ZackTV devoted his life to making Chicago’s fractious rap scene into one community
Zack Stoner, who was shot to death, documented every unseen corner of Chicago hip-hop.
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Black Pegasus just dropped two unreleased early Common cuts—and you can only hear them on vinyl
Black Pegasus owner Marc Davis talks about how his microlabel managed to release two tracks from the sessions for Common’s 1992 debut, Can I Borrow a Dollar?
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‘I represent’: Rapper Ajani Jones on the city, his mother’s encouragement—and his fascination with dragonflies
Before the Chicago hip-hop label Closed Sessions released Jones’s Cocoons, he talked to the Reader at length about bugs, his high school speech team, and finding his voice.
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Mick Jenkins commands his own future on the brand-new EP Or More; the Frustration
Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins is ending his deal with Brooklyn indie label Cinematic, and he’s self-released two EPs that demonstrate where he’s going next.
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Chicago rapper Lunxch on constructive panic, apathetic open-mike audiences, and changing his name from Sage
Sage, the 64th Wonder was a promising Chicago rapper, but when he lost his creative thread he made the leap to become Lunxch—whose debut single, “Breathe,” dropped last week.
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With her new single, Lin-Z proves she’s one of the best emerging rappers in Chicago
On the new “Grown,” queer rapper Lin-Z makes her peace with the physical and mental fatigue that comes with holding together an adult life.
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The best overlooked Chicago hip-hop of 2017
Do you think you’ve listened to every important Chicago hip-hop release this year? Tony Cartel, Lulu Be, Backwood Jones, Legit, and Malci bet you haven’t.
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Supa Bwe is about to drop one of the best Chicago rap albums of the year
Supa Bwe’s recent Saba-assisted single, “Down Comes the Spaceman,” demonstrates why he could break big with the new Finally Dead.
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Joseph Chilliams talks about the losses he overcame to release one of the year’s best Chicago hip-hop albums
Pivot Gang cofounder Joseph Chilliams released his debut, Henry Church, in August, after months of career highs and personal lows—including the death of friend and collaborator Dinner With John.
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Chicago rapper Warhol.SS lands half his new EP on a Soundcloud chart
Four of the eight tracks on the new Warhol.SS EP have hit Soundcloud’s “new and hot” chart in the past week.
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Chicago producer Mulatto Beats does the best work on his new album with his old friend Qari
Mulatto Beats and Qari began collaborating six years and two hip-hop groups ago, and they show how well they get each other on “Good to Lose.”