Most rappers can only dream of making a song as powerful as PGF Nuk’s breakout single, “Waddup.” Superficially it sounds like a pretty standard drill track—terse verses in a wrought-iron flow, lean percussion, a sparse synth melody as chilly as a dusty pipe organ—but Nuk puts it over the top with his style. The Englewood […]
Tag: G Herbo
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Photos from Summer Smash 2022
Photos by Dylan Barnedo Since its launch as a one-day festival in 2018, Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash has grown into a three-day extravaganza that can go toe-to-toe with nationally recognized institutions. Pop-rap poster boy Post Malone, whose 2021 headlining set at Lollapalooza put him just below the Foo Fighters on the lineup poster, closed out […]
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An interview with Saba: ‘For me, home is the people’
In late 2014, I was incredibly homesick: I’d just left Chicago for college out of state, and I was struggling to adjust to a new campus and an immediate world that looked vastly different from what I was used to. Treated like an outsider, I yearned for pieces of home. Luckily Soundcloud recommended Comfort Zone, […]
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On the new 25, Chicago drill star G Herbo proves his skills haven’t suffered from his celebrity
Chicago rapper Herbert Wright III, better known as G Herbo, has become the kind of public figure whose smallest social media movement is fodder for the content mill. When Herb’s girlfriend, Taina Williams, recently blocked him on Instagram, the nonevent inspired blog posts at Complex, HotNewHipHop, and Bossip. Thankfully, whatever strains and pressures come with […]
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No More Heroes are building the future of Chicago rap
Azeez Alaka and Brandon Holmes run a music and video production company with a pipeline to the majors and a headquarters shaping up in Little Village.
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Insomniac Studios nurtures a music-business community on the far south side
With internships, apprenticeships, mentoring, and workshops, Blue Island’s Black-owned Insomniac Studios bypasses white industry gatekeepers.
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G Herbo uses his own journey toward healing to help Black youth treat their trauma
Chicago rapper G Herbo wants to normalize therapy for people who’ve suffered like he has—and he’s giving away hundreds of sessions.
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Chicago rapper G Herbo gives his reflective raps new shapes on PTSD
I wish the right-wing miscreants in the federal government were as dependable as Chicago rapper G Herbo. For close to a decade, he’s released albums and mixtapes of rapid-fire drill with reassuring frequency, and even his most run-of-the-mill offerings benefit from his pragmatic empathy and lucid descriptions—he brings a distinctive emotional gravity to his detailed […]
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The U. of C. Folk Festival celebrates 60 years on Valentine’s weekend
The U. of C. Folk Festival celebrates 60 years on Valentine’s weekend, Polo G headlines a stacked Metro benefit before the NBA All-Star Game, and more.
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The best Chicago albums of the 2010s: the critics’ ballots
Here’s where to see who voted for what and how the points got divvied up.
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The best Chicago albums of the 2010s
The Reader polled dozens of critics to arrive at an absolutely indisputable ranked list of several hundred records that will definitely not start any arguments.
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Chicago rapper Juice Wrld died just as his career was beginning
The MC born Jarad Higgins became a commercial juggernaut in less than two years, and passed away just days after turning 21.
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The best overlooked Chicago hip-hop of 2018
Chicago’s hip-hop scene overflows with such variety and abundance that it’s impossible to show enough love to every great release—but that’s no reason not to try.
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Queen Key demands what she wants—and that matters
Queen Key’s outsize confidence sends a message of support to black women who know the odds are stacked against them.
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It’s G Herbo’s time to give back
Lately it seems like G Herbo can’t even play a show in Chicago, but the city’s favorite street rapper has found another way to give back: he’s joined a project to turn part of a shuttered south-side school into a media lab and music incubator.