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 […]
Tag: Jamila Woods
Posted inMusic
Metallic hardcore masters Harm’s Way celebrate a decade of Isolation
When metallic hardcore masters Harm’s Way dropped their second full-length, Isolation, in 2011, Gossip Wolf hailed the “chug-o-riffic” album for its “circle-pit-ready brutality”—and the band have gone on to build a worldwide fan base and sign to Metal Blade. In November, Closed Casket Activities (who originally put out Isolation) released a tenth-anniversary edition with four […]
Posted inMusic
A guide to Pitchfork for the resonant body
Since 2015, my first year living full-time in Chicago, the Pitchfork Music Festival has been a watershed moment in my summer. In its regular July slot, the fest has created a fulcrum point in the season—it’s a place to unexpectedly bump into forgotten friends and rest in the leafy tranquility of the Blue Stage, where […]
Posted inMusic
Pitchfork announces the lineup for its delayed 2021 music festival
Plenty of COVID-related uncertainty still surrounds the Pitchfork fest, as it does any large-scale event—but we can be reasonably sure about who’s scheduled to play.
Posted inMusic
Lightfoot hijacks Lollapalooza
Did Chicago musicians booked for Lollapalooza know their sets might look like an endorsement of Mayor Lightfoot?
Posted inFilm
Trying to be a player in Got Game?
Fatimah Asghar’s new short film explores queer sex with a video game twist.
Posted inArts & Culture
Jamila Woods to perform at 20th anniversary Louder Than a Bomb finals
The musician, poet, and LTAB alum takes the stage during halftime.
Posted inMusic
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.
Posted inMusic
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.
Posted inArts & Culture
Darling Shear is ready to fly
The artist’s piece Querida is a personal performance presenting sexuality, sensuality, and healing from trauma.
Posted inMusic
Keeping the beat
Chicago’s beat scene has to do without the attention the city’s rappers get, but it’s a vital incubator for adventurous, ambitious instrumental hip-hop.
Posted inArts & Culture
A seat at the table with Janelle Monaé
What happens when you bring 80 Chicago creatives, artists, change makers—and a Reader reporter—to late-night brunch at the MCA.
Posted inMusic
Kaina gives her soulful R&B the intimacy of real and chosen family
On her debut album, Chicago singer-songwriter Kaina takes strength from her favorite people: her friends and collaborators, her childhood mentors, her immigrant parents.
Posted inMusic
Veteran singer-songwriter Susan Werner on the future queen of bluegrass
Current musical obsessions of veteran singer-songwriter Susan Werner, musician and artist Scott Montgomery, and Reader coeditor in chief Karen Hawkins
Posted inMusic
Jamila Woods asserts her place among the greats with Legacy! Legacy!
In November, Chicago poet, teacher, and singer-songwriter Jamila Woods performed her 2016 debut album, Heavn, at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Grand Boulevard. She brought in dozens of collaborators, including a youth choir, a small troupe of dancers, and a backing band. Several prominent young local poets of color, including Tasha, E’mon Lauren, and […]