Gossip Wolf has long admired local country-music craftsman Dan Whitaker, whose considerable discography includes folk-tinged solo work and recordings with his combo the Shinebenders that combine hillbilly jazz, country blues, honky-tonk stompers, and working-class ballads about booze, trucks, and lost love. By the end of this month, Whitaker will have relocated to Martindale, Texas (between […]
Tag: Cool Kids
Posted inMusic
Marcus Atom drops the first album of his catchy, soulful R&B
Gossip Wolf is hardly a conspiracy theorist, but if you draw bulletin-board maps of Chicago’s disparate music scenes with string and thumbtacks, you’ll see drummer and soul man Marcus Anthony Johnson popping up everywhere! As a session musician, Johnson has worked at Gravity Studios and Electrical Audio, collaborated with drummer Matt Walker (who’s played with […]
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Chicago hip-hop duo Mother Nature level up with the BoatHouse collaboration Sznz
Rappers Klevah Knox and TRUTH, known collectively as Mother Nature, have worked tirelessly to ascend through the Chicago scene over the past few years. COVID-19 threw a gigantic roadblock in their path—the same way it did for almost anyone who isn’t a billionaire using a society-shifting pandemic to get billions of dollars richer—but the duo’s […]
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Naledge brings his rapper’s brain back to academia
Jabari “Naledge” Evans of Kidz in the Hall talks about his doctoral dissertation, incorporating hip-hop into education, the drill scene hacking the industry, and more.
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Pass the mike ’n’ cheese on the gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was created by Chicago artist Jake Reeder, aka Jake.PSD.
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Sunday’s storms actually improved Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash
Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash has grown into Chicago’s biggest rap festival in just its second year, but it needed a nudge from the elements to get its act together.
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The Cool Kids hit Temperance to celebrate the tenth birthday of their first EP
The Cool Kids hit Temperance to celebrate the tenth birthday of their first EP, an all-star Chicago crew plays Black Sabbath and Abba at the same Halloween show, and more.
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Could DJ Taye make Chicago footwork the biggest music in the world?
The Teklife producer integrates rap so perfectly on his new Still Trippin’ that he could bring footwork to new heights.
Posted inBlogs
Fake Shore Drive founder Andrew Barber on ten years of blogging and the evolution of the Chicago hip-hop scene
Fake Shore Drive has grown alongside Chicago rap, becoming an institution in its own right—and it celebrates its tenth anniversary by reuniting Big Tymers for a show at the Portage.
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How Blink-182 gave hip-hop a refreshing Enema
Blink-182 helped connect the mainstream pop-punk of the late 90s to the Soundcloud rap of today.
Posted inBlogs
Mick Jenkins’s DJ, Green Sllime, takes a break from the turntables to host a talk show
The newish YouTube series Sllime’s Broke Ass Low Budget Show caters to Chicago hip-hop fanatics.
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Robin Thicke’s morbidly fascinating Paula and 15 more record reviews
This month’s release roundup includes White Lung’s witchy two-minute mantras, Monarch’s crawling tectonic doom, and Sir Michael Rocks’s bleakly sunny party rap.
Posted inMusic
Chance the Rapper drops Acid Rap
Chance the Rapper drops Acid Rap—and it’s going to take him to places he’s only imagined.
Posted inBlogs
Trinidad James and Master P make SXSW say “Uhhh”
Wilding out with “ignorant” rappers new and old
Posted inBlogs
Chicago rap’s big day out at SXSW
Chance the Rapper’s ascendance continues at SXSW, and more.