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”) […]
Tag: Vic Mensa
Posted inMusic
Frank Leone’s hip-hop experiments make for a beautifully bizarre debut album
Rapper-producer Frank Leone grew up in the town of Monticello, just southwest of Champaign, and began taking music seriously after a chance meeting with Vic Mensa at a downstate Lupe Fiasco show in 2011. Since dropping his debut mixtape in 2015, he’s reworked his sound, moved to Los Angeles, and scrubbed the Web of large […]
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Chicago rappers SD and Brian Fresco combine their distinctive styles for the whimsically joyful Muddbruddas
I’m thankful for the first full-length collaboration between Chicago rappers SD and Brian Fresco, the new Muddbruddas (Empire). Its mere existence takes a wrecking ball to the tired cliche that the local scene is split into two camps, “drill” and “alternative hip-hop,” that are isolated from each other’s sound and influence. When Chief Keef kicked […]
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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.
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Naledge brings his rapper’s brain back to academia
Jabari “Naledge” Evans of Kidz in the Hall talks about his doctoral dissertation, incorporating hip-hop into education, the drill scene hacking the industry, and more.
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PJ Gordon, hip-hop promoter, curator, and writer
“I have a pinned tweet on my page that says, ‘“I fucked someone to that playlist you made” is the highest compliment you can give me.’”
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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 inArts & Culture
Meet Nikko Washington, the painter and ace bowler in the Save Money collective.
The Hyde Park-raised artist wants to put his own spin on depicting the black experience.
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Chicago rap crew Pivot Gang honor a fallen comrade
Pivot Gang cofounder John Walt is memorialized in Saba’s Care for Me—and by an arts nonprofit that bears his name, which holds its flagship concert fund-raiser this weekend.
Posted inArts & Culture
Brandon Lamar Rials is elevating jeans, one personalized pair at a time
The Pilsen-based designer crafts uniquely distressed pants.
Posted inBlogs
Chicago’s first Red Bull Music Festival is all over the map, with Pusha T, Makaya McCraven, Merzbow, and more
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 25, for Red Bull Music’s sprawling November festival of concerts, showcases, and lectures.
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Food, football, fund-raising, and Freddie Gibbs at this weekend’s music fests
Beer & Bands for Comfort Station This fund-raiser for Logan Square arts hub Comfort Station features a diverse bill of live music (Dos Santos, Phoelix, Dim, and Campdogzz) plus beer from Goose Island, cider from Virtue, and hard seltzer from White Claw. See Gossip Wolf for more. Sat 9/8, 4 PM, Illinois Centennial Monument, 2595 […]
Posted inBlogs
Rapper Vic Mensa: Chicago’s newest Black Panther?
At this past weekend’s “anti-bait-truck” shoe giveaway, the 25-year-old rapper declared himself a revolutionary.
Posted inBlogs
Lyrical Lemonade’s first outdoor festival: scads of Soundcloud rap, thousands of teenagers, and hours of waiting for food
Three Reader writers hash out the highs and lows of the Summer Smash, which showcased a young rap scene that’s innovating a vital new sound but also celebrating alleged abusers.