Multi-instrumentalist Liam Kazar has been so crucial to my evolving understanding of Chicago’s bustling, magnanimous music scene that I felt a little heartbroken when he moved to Kansas City in 2019. He’d risen to national fame in the early 2010s as part of the youthful fusion ensemble Kids These Days, whose idealistic collision of jazz, […]
Tag: Kids These Days
Posted inMusic
Vic Mensa’s rejuvenating raps breathe life into I Tape
Chicago rapper Vic Mensa has had a career trajectory unlike many other Chicago artists the past decade. After rising to national prominence in the early 2010s as front man of Kids These Days, he became a solo star, delivering a sharp debut mixtape (2013’s Innanetape) and a career-making hip-house single (2014’s “Down On My Luck”) […]
Posted inMusic
A room of Ohmme’s own
On Fantasize Your Ghost, Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham make their music a place of trust, discovery, and compassion.
Posted inMusic
Operation Hennessy digs a new channel for Chicago hip-hop
Keen-eyed rapper Qari hooks up with producer Green Sllime for Operation Hennessy—and opens the floodgates on his friend’s reservoir of irreverent old-school beats.
Posted inMusic
Vic Mensa revisits his vanishing Hyde Park
Rising rapper Vic Mensa considers his old Hyde Park neighborhood home, even though gentrification has killed his favorite hangouts.
Posted inMusic
Knox Fortune learned his trade in hip-hop, but he wants to make his name in pop
Producer Knox Fortune, aka Kevin Rhomberg, headlines his first show as a solo artist to celebrate his debut album, Paradise.
Posted inBlogs
Vic Mensa narrows his focus on crossover pop with The Manuscript
After foregrounding his radical politics with last year’s “16 Shots,” Vic Mensa emphasizes the pop aspects of his rap songs on a new EP.
Posted inMusic
Can Vic Mensa radicalize Lollapalooza?
Chicago rapper Vic Mensa publicly supports Black Lives Matter and LGBT rights, while Lollapalooza tries to please everyone—so it’ll be interesting to see how his festival set goes down.
Posted inBlogs
Vic Mensa gets personal and political on his Roc Nation debut, There’s Alot Going On
Chicago rapper Vic Mensa doesn’t always strike the best balance of politics and pop, but he never fails to get his point across.
Posted inBlogs
Donnie Trumpet and Chance the Rapper’s new album hit the Web last night without any warning
Surf, the new album from Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment (aka Chance the Rapper’s backing band), is for sale on iTunes.
Posted inBlogs
Up-and-coming rapper Frank Leone discusses his debut full-length, Enter Wild
The 19-year-old talks about the influence of Vic Mensa, Chicago violence, and Phantom of the Opera.
Posted inBlogs
Hunting for fun on Vic Mensa’s Innanetape
One Reader writer went on a scavenger hunt for a CD copy of the brand-new debut mixtape from Save Money cofounder Vic Mensa, Innanetape.
Posted inMusic
Gossip Wolf: Friends help Scoundrel bounce back from a van crash
Friends help Scoundrel bounce back from a van crash, Hunter Husar books a schizo bill in Bridgeport, and more
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
Gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was created by Austin Sellers out of Portland, OR