[Video] Donnie Trumpet & Peter CottonTale Talk Tour Life

Video by FragDfilms

Donnie Trumpet & Peter CottonTale have been very busy lately. The pair of Chicago-raised musicians each saw a transformation in their careers last year as Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap, aided by horn play from Donnie and plenty of production from CottonTale, vaulted their close friend to the forefront of not only the national hip-hop scene, but the larger music world in general.

At the time, Donnie was playing trumpet for Kids These Days, who broke up weeks after the Acid Rap release and spent the summer touring with Frank Ocean while CottonTale continued to work with Vic Mensa on Innanetape and joined Chance and Mac Miller on the road for a national tour. Everything came together in mid October as both appropriately were chosen by Chance to join him on his first national headlining tour, dubbed the "Social Experiment Tour." The tour, which ran from October through December 19 and sold out in almost every city, was a fitting end to a wild year for both Donnie and CottonTale, who served as Music Director  for the tour. We caught up with the pair last week at Force One Seven Studios to get a little insight into what life on the road is like and what the whole experience meant to each.

Check out the full video below and be sure to catch Donnie Trumpet performing tomorrow night at The Riff in Chicago's South Loop for his "Farewell Donnie" show, details listed below the video.

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[Video] Chance The Rapper Performs on Arsenio Hall

Chance The Rapper and co. wrapped up their "Social Experiment Tour" yesterday in Los Angeles with a performance at the Nokia Theater. Before heading there, though, they made a stop at the Arsenio Hall Show where Chance, backed by his band of Peter CottonTale, Nico Segal, Nate Fox and Greg Landfair, and looking fresh to death in custom "Social Experiment" letterman jackets, played their re-arranged live version of "Chain Smoker" off of Acid Rap, which has steadily been making the rounds at the top of nearly everyone's top albums of the year list.

Throughout the performance Chano seemed to be reveling in the moment, soaking in the feeling of having propelled himself to this very point. As Chance closes the book on a historic 2013, his performance on "Arsenio" seemed to be a sort of revelatory moment. Watch the full streaming video below from last night and scroll just a little further for Chance's hilarious interview with Nardwuar while he was on tour in Vancouver.

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[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

Nate Fox by Bryan Lamb

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?


Vic Mensa

[Video] Closed Sessions: 'The Making of Innanetape'

Vic Mensa has been getting press for days since releasing his re-debut to the world as a solo artist, Innanetape, released at the beginning of the month. Since then, he's traveled around the country touring with J. Cole and Wale, went out to New York for CMJs and popped up everywhere there was a camera and a mic, and is gracing the banner and headlines of most every hip-hop site. Before all that, though, he was lounged back in a desk chair at SoundScape Studios with Mike Kolar, DJ RTC and the crew, working on his latest masterpiece. Check out the short doc Closed Sessions put together from their time helping put together Innanetape, shot by Andrew Zeiter.

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Chance the Rapper's Social Experiment Tour photos by J Frank

[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.


Chance the Rapper's Social Experiment Tour photos by Jake Krzeczowski

[RH Photos] Behind The Scenes: Chance The Rapper's "The Social Experiment" Tour Rehearsal

Photos by Jake Krzeczowski

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time I was interviewing Chance The Rapper for an article in the Sun Times as he prepared to play his first headlining show at The Metro. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend a rehearsal at the same storied venue on Chicago’s north side as Chance and company prepared for his first headlining national tour. It has been a year of “nexts” for Chancellor Bennett thus far and few moments embodied that more for me than taking in the rehearsal Sunday night. With backing from Peter CottonTale, Nico Segal, Nate Fox and Greg Landfair, along with Jake Lipp and a host of others, Chance isn’t looking to put on a show listeners are necessarily expecting. The core team of CottonTale, Segal, Fox and Landfair has been hard at work for weeks massaging out new arrangements and crafting a show that allows each song to reach its full potential on a live stage, something telling for an artist Chance’s age. Watching his rise has been crazy, but after seeing a small preview of what’s in store it’s safe to say this is all merely the beginning. Check out my photos from last night below and keep it locked to RH for continuing coverage of The Social Experiment Tour.


[RH Feature] Vic Mensa Takes Over The Innanetape

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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.