Murph Watkins: "Beautiful"
In his latest track, Chicago's Murph Watkins laces over the ins and outs of explaining one's self to another you find too striking to talk to, winding a story for the listener that is a journey from first meeting and infatuation to the loss of a love. Watkins holds down his two-verse track over a soulfully-sampled beat from talented fellow Chicagoans, THEMpeople, and gets a hand on the striking vocals from Loona Dae. Check out the latest from Murph here below.
[Video] The Save Money Christmas Cypher + New Songs
Few collectives in music had a bigger rise in overall reputation than Chicago's Save Money team. In honor of a 2013 that saw projects from Vic and Chance, as well as Brian Fresco's Mafioso, a Save Money compilation and a steady slew of singles that increasingly unique. In honor of all this and Christmas, some of the team got together for a special cypher video just for the holidays. Joey Purp starts things off before handing off to Kami De Chukwu, Tokyo Shawn and Vic Mensa, who caps off the short video, shot by the girls of Verluxe.
In other Save Money news, we also got new tracks from both Vic Mensa and Dally Auston that can be heard below. Vic's "Crazy" is a lost cut from his 2010 Straight Up EP and was released around Christmas as a loosie single, as is Auston's "Great Gatsby".
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[Video] Add-2 Toca Tuesday Freestyle
Chicago's own Add-2 has been consistently adding to the great year he's had already and the other day continued to do so, stopping by Shade45 to spit a freestyle on Toca Tuesdays. Riding over a beat set down by Tony Touch, the witty lyricist mashed together a healthy helping of rhyme scheme and wordplay to prove why he got a look from legendary producer 9th Wonder, who signed Add to his JAMLA imprint back in October. It's been exciting to see Add get his due, and to add another Midwest product to the larger hip-hop landscape. Check out the video of Add-2 going in streaming below and be sure to pick up his latest project, and his first as part of JAMLA, Between Heaven & Hell with Khrysis.
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[Video] Taylor Bennett: "Heartbreaker"
Chicago's own Taylor Bennett has been gaining steam since dropping his mixtape, The Taylor Bennett Show this summer, and tonight dropped the video for his single, "Heartbreaker" off his upcoming 2014 project, Mainstream Music. The video, shot by 16-year-old Thelonious Stokes and premiered by IllRoots, is interesting, with Taylor musing over the intricacies of relationship issues, playing between a melodic hook and mixed bag of rhyme schemes throughout the track. The video is a small preview of what fans can expect from the 17-year-old's upcoming, sold out show at Reggie's Rock House in Chicago on December 20. Check out the video below, and keep it locked to RH for more on Taylor Bennett.
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[RH Interview] Giftz
Photography by ACJ Photos
Chicago is a rough city. Since the advent of "drill", GBE and Chief Keef, the stories of the city's streets have been told primarily by artists that painted pictures of death and destruction and little else. Enter: Giftz, the gritty hip-hop artist from Chicago's south side that has woven poetic lyricism and a cognitive thought process into a burgeoning career that has his hometown and all its good and bad wrapped up in it. Since releasing his 2013 mixtape Position of Power Giftz has gone about, well, establishing a position of power for himself amongst an increasingly populated sea of artists elevating from the Second City. Despite his self-described affection for gangsta rap aesthetics, Giftz is able to seamlessly move around the city, spending time at Leaders with Save Money or Treated Crew at Jugrnaut. Giftz made a leap in 2013 which has allowed him to make the leap of establishing a following outside the 312 area code. With his eye on a headlining show before the end of the year to hit 2014 running, he says all he's trying to do now is stay out of trouble. I had the chance to catch up with Giftz a couple week ago to talk about his recent rise in the hip-hop game and what he has coming next. Check out his latest song, "Statement," on the next page, and our conversation over the following pages.
[Video] Lucki Eck$: "Count On Me"
Chicago's own Lucki Eck$ made waves earlier this year with the release of his breakthrough debut project, Alternative Trap. The ambient trap-influenced airiness of the mixtape's overall aesthetic and beats matched Lucki's unique, off-beat, shadowy tone in his rhymes which acted as yet another interesting take on the genre from a Chicago artist. The tape has brought considerable attention to the somewhat mysterious artist, enough that his next project will be one of the most anticipated releases in awhile.
Today, we get the video for Lucki's track "Count On Me", produced by hytman and directed by JKrown, the visual details Lucki and co. wandering and bopping their way down the streets of Wicker Park. Surreal is a word often used to describe the young artist on the rise, a word that aptly describes the accompanying visual element to the track. Check out "Count On Me" below.
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Calez: "Peaceful"
One of the projects I'm most looking forward to in the coming year is Calez's upcoming Ceito mixtape. The 2008ighties artist has spent most of 2013 building a buzz around his next release, dropping Too Broke Tape and G-Unit Bundle Pack, along with several well-played loosies that have kept interest in him high and wondering what is next. "Thxs x Thxt", dropped om August, then touted as an early look at Ceito. Today, though, we get the official first single from the next big thing to come from Calez. Oh, and he handles the beat as well-so there's that. Take a minute to check out one of the most talented artists popping out of the middle of the map below and take a look at the third installment of his "The American Dream Project" video diary series.
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[Video] ProbCause: "High Altitude" (Feat. Martin $ky)
ProbCause saw a huge leap in 2013 on the heels of his well-received The Recipe Vol. 2, released July 12, was a sampler platter of many different sides of the flourishing Chicago hip-hop scene, containing everyone from ShowYouSuck and Auggie The 9th, to Add-2 and Scheme, even a couple looks from Chance The Rapper on "LSD" and "3 Course Meal". It was a seminal project for the talented artist and today we get the latest visual from the release, a video for the track "High Altitude" featuring another fellow Chicagoan in Martin $ky. The track takes me back to driving around the city with the windows down and the video stays crispy fresh thanks to the talented team over at Elevator, who handled directorial duties. Prob set out to capture a moment of time in Chicago hip-hop with his latest project, take a moment to enjoy two of the better up and comers from the city.
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