Chicagoans don’t need an excuse to talk about house music, but when the biggest pop star in the world drops a record indebted to house, you can expect more than just a conversation. Beyoncé’s Renaissance has effectively evangelized for this Chicago-born sound since the album came out in July, not least because she shaped it […]
Tag: Dance Mania
Posted inMusic
Archive dive: On house music
Between Drake’s sleepy Honestly, Nevermind and Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” a lot of people have something to say about house music lately. (And while I can’t say I have thoroughly read every discourse posting, I’ve seen almost no instances of anyone mentioning the fact that several music sites reported rumors of Beyoncé working with house […]
Posted inMusic
Pioneering footwork producer RP Boo bares his soul on Established!
Footwork music’s whimsical, tempestuous take on house wouldn’t exist without Chicago producer Kavain Space, better known as RP Boo. In the mid-90s, he drew from his experience DJing for House-O-Matics dancers to devise skittish, hyperactive tracks that proved too puzzling for Dance Mania, a staple label of the scene that provided a home for the […]
Posted inMusic
TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana
TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana, Chi-ROCK Nation celebrate hip-hop heritage with a monthlong exhibit, and more.
Posted inMusic
New Canyons return after eight years with a third album of gloomy dream pop
New Canyons return after eight years with a third album of gloomy dream pop, hip-hop historian Darrell “Artistic” Roberts interviews 1980s MC Mello D, and more.
Posted inMusic
One of Chicago’s best unsung musicians drops a new album
One of Chicago’s best unsung musicians drops a new album, the Chicago Black Social Culture Map talks west-side music, and more.
Posted inMusic
A tour of FeelTrip’s brand-new record store, No Requests
The multimedia collective has a record label, a dance night, an apparel line—and now a brick-and-mortar shop.
Posted inMusic
Marcus Mixx has lost his home, but he still has house
Marcus Mixx’s early records fetch hundreds of dollars apiece from a cult of collectors, but he just wants a space of his own to make his new tracks.
Posted inMusic
Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker
Dance-music fiend Jerome Derradji Still is restoring dozens of decaying reel-to-reel tapes featuring unissued tracks and mixes from the genre’s early giants.
Posted inMusic
Rapper Chris Crack breaks a yearlong silence with a single 36-minute track
Chicago rapper Chris Crack breaks a yearlong silence with a single 36-minute track, DJ Paypal invites ghetto-house innovator Jana Rush to East Room, and more.
Posted inMusic
West-side music-business institution Willie Barney dies at 89
West-side music-business institution Willie Barney dies at 89, Music Frozen Dancing returns to the Empty Bottle with a “kool” surprise guest, and more.
Posted inBlogs
Did you see the Twitter video of a mobile DJ at a Chicago Trump protest? Here’s the story behind the song.
DJ Chip made the ghetto-house cut “Aw Shit” with his neighbor in 1999, and last week it soundtracked a downtown inauguration protest.
Posted inMusic
Why little rappers still believe in big radio
Little rappers still believe in big radio thanks to DJs like Nehpets at Power 92.
Posted inMusic
The Era move footworking into the spotlight
Footwork crews often end up as sideshows to DJs or rappers—but Chicago dancers the Era hope to change that with their first stage production.
Posted inMusic
How the USA fell for EDM, chapter one
In these excerpts from his lively and meticulous new book, The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America, longtime Reader contributor Michaelangelo Matos chronicles the three-decade ascent of EDM.