Chicago-born singer-songwriter KeiyaA beat the odds by turning her debut album, Forever, Ya Girl, into a multidimensional artwork.
Tag: Soundcloud
Posted inCity Life
The Reader’s stay-at-home chronicles: days 71 and 72
What we’re reading, watching, listening to, etc., to pass the time.
Posted inCity Life
The Reader’s stay-at-home chronicles: days eight and nine
What we’re reading, watching, listening to, etc., to pass the time.
Posted inMusic
With Piece of Mind, Hxry brings a laid-back vibe to Chicago’s R&B scene
Chicago R&B artist Hxry got his start as a producer—at least as far back as 2016, he was releasing stylistically scattershot instrumental tracks on Soundcloud—but he got his first real taste of success as a vocalist, with his 2018 song “Reasons.” Atop a fluttering synth melody and a suave, minimal rhythm section, Hxry gently sings […]
Posted inMusic
Florida rapper Dominic Fike makes Soundcloud rap for people who don’t like Soundcloud rap
Last year Florida rapper Dominic Fike landed a multimillion-dollar deal with Columbia Records on the strength of a string of songs totaling just shy of 15 minutes. The label wasn’t wrong to see Fike as a Soundcloud-rap star in the making: his music is about as transgressive as jaywalking, but his tracks are great at […]
Posted inMusic
Brittney Carter discovers Chicago hip-hop—and vice versa
Brittney Carter thought she was just writing poems. Her classmates at Young Chicago Authors heard a great rapper in the making—and the rest of the city’s scene is starting to agree.
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
Why little rappers still believe in big radio
Little rappers still believe in big radio thanks to DJs like Nehpets at Power 92.
Posted inBlogs
Warm up for this weekend’s Chosen Few Music Festival with DJ Alan King’s latest late-night mix
Between working as a partner at a law firm and helping the Chosen Few Picnic expand to two days, Alan King found the time to make his monthly Late Night Sessions mix for June.
Posted inMusic
Alexander Fruchter of Closed Sessions on a musical Band-Aid in a fucked-up world
Current musical obsessions of hip-hop songwriter Kweku Collins, Alex Fruchter of Closed Sessions, and the Reader’s Kevin Warwick
Posted inBlogs
What’s the story behind the old-school Chicago house track that Aphex Twin recently remixed?
Aphex Twin gives “I Want to Be With You” a new life, though the details behind the original’s creation aren’t easy to find.
Posted inBlogs
Madonna siphons PC Music into the mainstream with her first Rebel Heart singles
The PC Music sound was always going to find its way onto the charts, but Madonna is the first to bring it there.
Posted inBlogs
Who thought up a Lana Del Rey-Rae Sremmurd mashup? Local SPF420 cofounder Chaz Allen
A month-old mashup created by local producer Chaz Allen has garnered a lot of attention this week—could it be a tipping point for his web-based concert series?
Posted inMusic
Victor Nwankwo of DJ duo We Theory on his Nigerian parents’ old records
Current musical obsessions of Rob Garmer and Victor Nwankwo (both halves of DJ duo We Theory)
Posted inBlogs
Spotify, Soundcloud, and the web’s leaky music infrastructure
Taylor Swift just sold more than a million albums the same week she yanked all her music from Spotify. What’s the state of streaming for everyone else?