Though live shows are returning, there’s no safer way to support artists and labels than buying music online.
Tag: Roy Kinsey
Chicago rapbrarian Roy Kinsey makes music for summer celebrations with Juke Skywalker Vol. 1
Chicago rapper and librarian Roy Kinsey has drawn national attention for his remarkable concept albums and their sensitive, piercingly thoughtful lyrics. In 2018 he dropped Blackie: A Story by Roy Kinsey, a deeply personal and thoroughly researched record about race in America that’s informed by Kinsey’s family history and the Great Migration; last year he […]
Tonic Room transforms itself into Golden Dagger
Tonic Room transforms itself into Golden Dagger, and Eleventh Dream Day release the surprise double album Since Grazed.
Chris Crack invites you to float down his river of consciousness on Might Delete Later
Chris Crack has released five albums of no-frills trash-talking hip-hop in 2020 alone, but he’s not worried about saturating the market. When he talked to Audiomack’s Matthew Ritchie upon the release of his first album of 2021, Might Delete Later, the west-side rapper quipped, “Did Aunt Jemima make too much syrup? Can Clorox ever make […]
Another chance for a Bandcamp binge to help musicians
Even as Illinois reopens, artists and labels remain cut off from major sources of income—so Bandcamp is again waiving its cut of sales.
Reunion Chicago, Slo ’Mo, and Open Television throw a three-night virtual Pride party
Reunion Chicago, Slo ’Mo, and Open Television throw a three-night virtual Pride party, Brent Gutzeit of TV Pow assembles a massive compilation to benefit the fight for racial justice, and more.
Rapbrarian Roy Kinsey finds his voice in queer hip-hop
With his next album, Roy Kinsey wants to make the music he wishes he’d heard as a young queer man of color.
Bodymilk Tapes invites a crowd of queer and trans musicians to Noise Prom II
Bodymilk Tapes invites a crowd of queer and trans musicians to Noise Prom II, the Chicago Humanities Festival hosts a discussion of Jim DeRogatis’s new R. Kelly book, and more.
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.
Roots-reggae five-piece Akasha address immigration and discrimination on Mother of Exiles
Roots-reggae five-piece Akasha address immigration and discrimination on Mother of Exiles, label and multimedia collective FeelTrip ask for help opening their record store, and more.
Chicago label Futurehood showcases where queer artists can take hip-hop
In 2011, Erik Wallace (aka rapper Mister Wallace) and Anthony Pabey (aka producer Aceb00mbap) met at the Boystown cocktail lounge Wang’s; four years later they launched Futurehood, a label that supports gay and transgender musicians of color. “My driving force was to create a space there that was what Boystown was not providing, giving, or […]
Roy Kinsey and Tasha are dropping new albums
The rapper and singer-songwriter are set up to release two of the best records of the year.
Chicago rapper Roy Kinsey proves his storytelling is as strong as his voice on Blackie
Chicago rapper Roy Kinsey has long known how to make it feel like his voice is the most important in the room. When he appeared on “Loverboy,” a track on Big Dipper’s 2013 Thick Life mixtape that’s anchored by a perfect Sade sample (an idea that came straight from Kinsey), his persona radiates so strongly […]
Jared Brown of Central Air Radio on life-changing punk black women
Current musical obsessions of Sick Muse editor Sasha Tycko, Central Air Radio host Jared Brown, and Reader writer Leor Galil
Chicago-reared bear rapper Big Dipper gets nasty on Thick Life
The queer formerly local MC just dropped his first full-length mixtape, and it’s quite raunchy.