NoNameGypsy: "Samaritan" (Feat. Mick Jenkins)
NoNameGypsy has been one of my favorite, low-key artists in the city for some time now. From catching her spitting spoken word poetry on a snowy Tuesday to performing rap songs in the midst of cluttered lineup, NoName has always been able to fully and succinctly embody who she is, both as an artist and a person. She has followed her inspired guest verse on Chance The Rapper's track "Lost" off of Acid Rap with a sputtering flow of new music that has kept listeners largely at bay. Today, though, we got "Samaritan", featuring Mick Jenkins. The title is fitting, given the time of the year and onus on "Good Samaritans". Rhyming over 90s-influenced production from Keanen Terrell paces NoName's narrative about not living up to expectations and dealing with the mundane nature of day-to-day life while yearning for something more. Sounding similar to RapSody without as much inflection in her voice, I'm incessantly drawn to NoName's wordplay and its at its best on "Samaritan" when she flows, "You a female rapper, don't rap about that shit, you're supposed to be a bad bitch, or at least a little confident". Check out "Samaritan" below and stay up on RH for more from NoNameGypsy soon.
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[Video] Childish Gambino: "3005" (Official Video)
Childish Gambino has blown up the internet with his latest release, Because the Internet, which dropped last week to voracious listeners and solid early reviews. With the project in the public forum, Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, has begun dropping accompanying visuals for the singles on the album. Last week, he dropped the video of him riding a ferris wheel at a carnival, looking unamused clutching a teddy bear. Over the weekend, Gambino also dropped his surf-inspired video for "The Worst Guys" featuring none other than Chance The Rapper, who very well may be having the best week ever between dropping songs with Justin Bieber and a new track with Vic Mensa, all while stopping down in Miami for the stretch run of the Social Experiment Tour. For "The Worst Guys" it seems all the pair did was have a good time at the beach smoking in the water and whatnot. Check out the video here below and pick up Because The Internet now on iTunes. Also, check out Gambino's new video for "3005", available below as well.
Update: The "The Worst Guys" video was originally available, then only available using the password "12.10.13SIXTY", and now seems to be down once again. We'll keep you posted as the video comes available again.
"3005"
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Chance The Rapper: "Cocoa Butter Kisses" Feat. Vic Mensa (Stefan Ponce Remix)
Stefan Ponce has been making hip-hop music in Chicago for a minute. The new father dropped his remix to Chance The Rapper's cigarette anthem, "Cocoa Butter Kisses" off his colossal Acid Rap release earlier this year. Ponce starts things off by accentuating the thunderous keystrokes of Peter CottonTale that set the tone of the track, before steadily taking things up a notch and turning the melodic song into a bonafide dance track. The break gets some funky synth work that makes "Cocoa Butter Kisses" a different kind of fun adventure throughout, playing with Chance's idyllic "nana's". Vic Mensa's verse, one of the highlights as far as features go on Acid Rap sound intrinsically Innanetape-esque with a double time shaker and increased bpm pushing the verse and track in a different direction. Check out the fun, creatively different remix of "Cocoa Butter Kisses" by Stefan Ponce, below.
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[Video] Chance The Rapper on 106th & Park
Chance The Rapper just keeps getting bigger. The hometown kid from Chicago, in New York for a two-day, three-set marathon at SOB's beginning today, stopped by BET's 106th & Park to chop it up with Bow Wow on national television. He starts things off by asking the host if it was cool to call him Bow and goes on to touch on some pretty interesting points involving being an independent artist today, the state of the music industry and the origins of music in Chicago. It's crazy to see him standing on the set next to Bow Wow and a testament to a year's worth of hard work. Check out the video below:
[RH Exclusive] Day 1 of Chance The Rapper's Social Experiment Tour
Chance The Rapper opened his debut headlining Social Experiment tour two and a half hours south of his hometown of Chicago on Friday October 25. Photographer/videographer Bryan Lamb and myself made the trip and were on hand for all the festivities as Chance and crew kicked things off at the University of Illinois. A majority of Save Money made the trip south, joining Chano onstage was none other than Vic Mensa who himself is currently between tours with J. Cole and Disclosure.
The set was the culmination of weeks worth of rehearsals and practice for Chance, Music Director Peter CottonTale and the rest of the backing band and sound crew including Greg Landfair, Nico Segal and Jake Lipp who rented out both the Metro and Reggie's to get a go-around of the stage set-up, lights and combination of both a solo part of the set, as well as one with the band. What the U of I crowd got was one hell of a show that went off as smooth as one could expect given the circumstances and which upped the bar for the remainder of the shows on the tour. Both CottonTale and Lipp, working behind the scenes, were pleased with the show and the fact that there were no major hiccups. Bryan (FragDFilms) did his thing and captured the first stop of the tour in the photos and video below, check it out and stay hooked to RH for continuing Social Experiment coverage.
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[RH Interview] Nate Fox
Photo by Bryan Lamb
A year ago, Nate Fox was living in Pittsburgh, working on a construction site. That all changed on April 30 when Chance The Rapper released his critically-acclaimed project, Acid Rap, featuring production from Fox. The past four months have taken him far from that manual labor life, traveling the country and then the world on the strength of his production and the success of Chance's latest release. To say it has been a long road is not an overstatement, after ten years plugging away in his native Pittsburgh and later Cleveland, Fox caught the ear of Chancellor with his beat for the Acid Rap single "Juice" with its quirky, bouncing, up-tempo beat. The rest is quickly becoming history as Fox and a talented team of producers including Peter CottonTale and Cam Osteen head back out on the road with Chance for his headlining Social Experiment tour. I got the opportunity to catch Fox while he was in Chicago preparing for the tour and had a chance to catch him for a few minutes between a salad and a session. Read about the crazy path his life has taken in 2013 and what lays ahead, below.
Jake: So I know you've had a crazy summer since Acid Rap dropped at the end of April, what's life been like?
Nate Fox: It's been a lot different, a lot different. Like, I don't feel any different but what I've been doing has definitely been different. It feels like a lot longer than what it's been just because its been so much compacted into such a short amount of time. You know, I was doing the construction thing. When Acid Rap dropped I was working construction in the middle of Pittsburgh, not even Pittsburgh but the middle of Pennsylvania, in the sticks. I think I left to go to LA to meet with labels and stuff in like June. And so from June until now, its been like a whirlwind of shit, like I just signed my pub deal with Disney like two or three weeks ago. I just got my check today, it came Fed Ex'ed to Pat (Corcoran)'s house today, but the ironic part is its Columbus Day and the banks are closed so I couldn't even do anything with it. So it was like ten years of waiting just to wait one more day (laughs).
Jake: Still, it always feels good to get that first check.
Nate Fox: Yeah, to get that first real check. I've gotten paid off music a whole bunch, but never to the point where I was like 'maybe I should start looking at places' you know what I mean?
[RH Photos] Behind The Scenes: Chance The Rapper's "The Social Experiment" Tour Rehearsal Part II
Photos by: JFrank
A continuation of our pictures published yesterday from behind the scenes of Chance The Rapper’s “Social Experiment Tour” rehearsals that took place at The Metro Sunday and Monday, today we bring you shots courtesy of Jeremy Frank (JFrank). The set is really shaping up, with almost every song re-arranged and an obligatory sign warning of the intensity of the stage’s strobe lights-anyone who has seen Chance and crew to this point will certainly be re-introduced while new fans will be given a healthy dose of Acid Rap, the way it was supposed to be heard. Check out the photos below and keep it locked to RH for all sorts of Social Experiment news.
[RH Feature] Vic Mensa Takes Over The Innanetape
Photo By: Bryan Lamb
It's ten o'clock at night in late March and I’m fighting sleep. Sitting almost horizontal on a massive, black leather couch as my photographer, Bryan Lamb, and I watch Chance the Rapper racing back and forth from the booth behind us to the computer in front of us, occasionally taking frantic puffs from his cigarette.
His counterpart, Vic Mensa, lounges on a couch nearby, staring intently at a Macbook perched carefully on his lap, analyzing the first cut of the video for “DiditB4”, the lead single off his September 30 release, Innanetape directed by fellow Savemoney member Austin Vesely. The pre-rendered cuts are too quick for the computer and the screen stops on a scene of Mensa, in a white coat and goggles, holding a cow brain. “That shit was too raw, Austin drove to some farm to get it,” said Mensa.
By now, you've most likely heard of Chancellor Bennett, the 20-year-old artist who turned a ten-day suspension from high school into a pair of nationally-recognized mixtapes. You also likely have heard of Vic Mensa, the 20-year-old former front-man of the now-defunct Kids These Days who announced via an XXL interview in April that the band was done.
Together, the pair make up the leadership team of "Savemoney"-an eclectic collective of young artists, musicians, students and more based in Chicago that have helped elevate the city to the top of hip hop's collective consciousness. That rise was aided heavily by Chance’s April release, Acid Rap. Mensa’s Innanetape is poised to blow the roof off the Chicago scene.