Back in March I did an interview with James Blake for a story in the Chicago Sun Times and asked him what he had heard coming out of Chicago recently. Knowing he had made a point to catch Chance The Rapper’s set at the Lawless showcase in Austin for SXSW this year, his answer wasn’t that surprising.”The last thing I saw from Chicago was Chance The Rapper,” said Blake. “I went to a gig at SXSW and he was playing and I got to meet him and say hello, he’s a really nice guy.”That brief familiarity resulted in a track from the pair, a remix of “Life ‘Round Here” that dropped earlier today via Noisey.
Blake went on to say later in the interview, “I’ve always been in tune with music from Chicago because it’s a place where great music seems to come out of every now and again. I think there’s a hunger that Chicago has. I don’t know whether I’ve got it right since I don’t know it that well, but I know the music that comes from there and there just seems to be this sort of appetite that you don’t normally find in other places. It’s like the people from Chicago are hungry to do something, regardless of what it is. It’s just an incredible, insatiable thing and they need it.” After watching Chance do his thing over the past year and the swell of talent Chicago has seen recently, I’d say Blake is spot on. Check out the track below.