The glorious weekend is upon us. As 250,000 fans make their way to Grant Park for the annual musical festivities that is Lollapalooza, other Chicagoans have taken a pass on this year’s festival, claiming the bill and/or schedule was simply not enticing enough. While I definitely understand their sentiments, I could not see myself living in Chicago and not being a part of the largest musical weekend of the year. As the Lolla Hip Hop line up is always a bit lacking, this year is no different, yet it is highlighted by a headlining performance from Eminem and a recently announced set by The Cool Kids Sunday at Perry’s stage. Not everyone will be out on the lakefront today, but the weekend will be buzzing no matter where you step foot. Today’s edition of Local Sounds includes a healthy dosage of news, tidbits, and music from a wide array of local artists including Kids These Days, The Cool Kids, L.E.P Bogus Boys, Skooda Chose, Kanye West, Mic Terror, Robot Army, Calez + More.
To kick off the biggest week of their lives, The pride and joy of Chicago’s School System, Kids These Days, performed at the House Of Blues Friday night, opening for the the one and only Snoop Dogg. The crew also saw a feature in the New York Times, a somewhat comprehensive overview of the group’s purpose and goals, in which singer Macie Stewert stated when asked about record contracts, “When the deal is right, we’re all going to go together,” portraying the dedication each member has to each other and the band as a unit. For everyone heading out to Grant park today, Kids These Days play at 4:15 on the BMI stage. Be There.
This past week in Chicago really got started with a never ashamed Consequence calling into WGCI to further trash talk Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. friends. Cons began the conversation by asking for the floor at least 3-minutes to be uninterrupted so he could go in to detail exclaiming, that he is “the best pure lyricist in Hip Hop & in music right now.” He also noted that Pusha T is jet fuel to Kanye just as he was to Pharrell, but perhaps the most outlandish claim was in response to Pusha’s statement that no one checks for Consequence’s music. Cons claimed that because he is featured on a chorus on a song off Beyonce’s latest LP, people are checking for him… Heavy. LOL. After a couple minutes of heinous comments from the Queens representative, he dropped a new diss track that most people probably didn’t even check for. As it’s obvious this is a fight Cons cannot win. Kanye’s “other brothers”, as stated by Consequence, such as GLC, Rhymefest and Really Doe have supported Kanye, with Rhymfest taking it to twitter stating, “Kanye and I been speaking, lately it interesting I see people who think he owes them stuff. I never understood letting another human have control over your success or failure in life. But as far as Kanye and his real homies notice that none of the guys he started with from Chicago talk shit about him. None of us. Chicago Cats understand playing your position and organizational structure.”
Yet, while Consequence was barraging Kanye and company obviously to piggy back off the hype and press for Watch The Throne, Mr. West was busy readying his highly anticipated release with Jay-Z, which drops Monday. Kanye also inked a deal with the ad-agency GlobalHue to launch something we’ve never seen before, a real-time look into the life of Kanye. “Voyr, the latest concept from the agency’s incubator, GHV, is set to launch Sept. 15 on the back of a forthcoming 35-city tour supporting the new album from Mr. West and Jay-Z, Watch the Throne. Viewers will be able to follow the tour live via webcasts for $3.99, but the normal subscription rate will be $4.99 per month for each star that appears on the online platform.”
On Wednesday night, I was able to run by Gary, IN MC G-Scott’s video shoot for the single “Folded”. Held in your typical neighborhood laundromat, the video done by the budding team at Young Wonder, should be coming soon. Shoutout to Ty Kidd from FSD and Tastemaker NJ’s and now local producer Thelonious Martin for stopping thru. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
As we near the release date to Ski Beatz’ 24-Hour-Karate School II release, we need to become aware of the strong presence Chicago has on the project. With L.E.P Bogus Boys, Sir Michael Rocks, GLC and Freddie Gibbs all making appearances on the LP, the release can be treated as a mini compilation for what I see as what’s to come from the rising star power MC’s from Chicago.
New Music & Videos
Earlier in the week Mic Terror dropped off something new for the listeners, “Stupid High” off he and Doc On The Beat’s upcoming collaboration project… “I’m so stupid high, Larry Hoover high, throw the rakes up to the sky and I ain’t even plugged with em, I ain’t even a thug n**ga, yes it must have been the drugs n**ga.”
The L.E.P. Bogus Boys are fresh off a headlining performance in NYC playing alongside The Kid Daytona, Grafh & The Illz, but also dropped one of my recent songs that stays on repeat “Right Back 4 Da Summa” feat. Atlanta’s Tity Boi (2chainz). A definite download that goes straight to the whip. On tour across the east coast with Young Jeezy, Freddie Gibbs’s “Rob Me A N**ga” feat. Alley Boy was released with no tags, furthering the anticipation for Cold Day in Hell, coming sooner than you think.
Skooda Chose is at it again and linked with Gold Coast TV for his most recent music video “Killuminati”. Off his upcoming Vulture Kulture: Top 5 Material, Pt. 3 which is set to drop next month. Another project we’ve been playing a lot is Robot Army member JD’s – Can a Nigga Borrow a Pencil , as just yesterday we got another dosage of dopeness from the army in the form of a adventurous music video for the gritty banger, “Higher”.
We are all aware that @Superfun has been rocking every Wednesday in Chicago, and have also upped the ante to include special pop up parties in NY, and LA as well as special events and concerts in the windy city. To reflect on the good vibes, they’ve put together this mixtape of special @superfun mashups.
Frustrated by a lack of blogosphere distribution, local up and comer Calez created this new record and video dedicated to all those that didn’t find space (or more likely time) to check out the project. “Middle Finger” is more than a rant from a young emcee with a lot to prove though, as he gives a real glimpse into demo shopping 2011.
After another solid week in the local scene, we cap the week off with a Lolla afterparty at Reggie’s featuring The Cool Kids. If you’d like to contribute something to Local Sounds, just hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or send an email to seanck@rubyhornet.com .