Stream TOWKIO's New LP, WWW
It's finally here. TOWKIO formerly Toyko Shawn fomerly Preston San has dropped his debut album, WWW. The LP is years in the making, and TOWKIO has grown tremendously since he started making music. Congrats are in order for the kid, for sure.
Earlier this week, DJBooth released a pretty in-depth interview with TOWKIO where he discussed the inspiration for the album, and the ties to space in theme and feeling. He took everything a step further, and actually went 92,000 feet in the air to get the full experience of his music. You can watch that unfold in the video below as well.
Vic Mensa, Sza, Carter Lang, Teddy Jackson, and others appear on the project. As I type this, I'm listening to "Forever" featuring Vic Mensa, and it's fucking awesome. Enjoy.
Vic Mensa performs private show for Summer of Collaboration
Summer of Collaboration presented by AT&T partnered with Vic Mensa for a private show at Chicago's AT&T Michigan Ave store with street photographer Vivian Maier’s.
Maier was street photography’s best kept secret. Maier worked as a nanny in the Chicago suburb North Shore in the late 1990’s. That's where while working she took what would become some of the best street photography.
Maier’s work almost never saw the light of day if it wasn’t for Chicago artist John Maloof. Maloof purchased Maier’s extensive work at an auction. He found an extensive amount of film, negatives, and prints of hundred rolls of film, home movies, and audio tape interviews that all belonged to Maier.
Maloof hosted a presentation going over Maier’s mysterious life and talking about her work and the impact surrounding it. Described as a Mary Poppin’s type, this introverted photographer opened her subjects up in the most beautiful way.
Chicago rapper Vic Mensa when up on stage admired Maloof’s courage and passion for being bold and fearless. Mensa was set to perform only three songs but added an additional for go measure. He performed: 16 Shots, Shades of Blue, There’s Alot Going On, and U Mad.
We recently caught Vic Mensa at The Vic Theater while on his "There’s Alot Going On" Tour. While at the Summer of Collaboration event we witnessed a side of Mensa that most music fans don’t. Pegged as a south side rapper and Kanye West pupil, Mensa is keeping busy with work outside the studio.
Vic Mensa has been politically active when it’s come to personal issues. Vic Mensa participated in the Laquan McDonald demonstrations. He also volunteered at Flint, Michigan during their water crisis. Vic urges young voters to register to vote by offering his latest EP “There’s ALot Going On” for free when they registered to vote.
Vic Mensa made sure his personal efforts were made clear as the Roc Nation rapper treated fans to a stadium caliber performance. With so few attending the private event, from seeing the incredible photographs from Maloof and seeing one of best in the city with Vic Mensa, the Summer of Collaboration was one of the purest ways to end the summer off right.
View our photo gallery of Vic Mensa’s Summer of Collaboration event below!
[Video] Justin Bieber: "Confident" (Feat. Chance The Rapper)
Welp, it's here. Chance and the Biebs got together on "Confident" at the beginning of December and it was just a matter of time before the collaboration got a visual component. Shot in Los Angeles while Chance The Rapper was in the midst of a move, Justin Bieber does his best impression of Michael Jackson in the somewhat-theatrical music video that tails Bieber as he lusts after a girl buying Takis. "Takis? I'd like to Takis to you on the phone." Smooth Justin. He then dances after her and she jumps on a motorcycle, but then gets out of a car. I don't know. Anyway, great timing for Chance to link his name with Bieber, now that the Canadian heartthrob has found himself on the front of every website and news outlet for his egg-tossing and speeding that has led him to hideout in Panama with Usher. Crazy. Anyway, check out the video below.
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[RH First Look] NoNameGypsy
Despite what she might want, if you've been following the Chicago music scene as of late, you've certainly heard of NoNameGypsy. The 22-year-old hip-hop artist made a name for herself in April with her featured verse on Chance The Rapper's track "Lost" off his monumental Acid Rap release. The guest spot gained the longtime spoken word aficionado considerable attention both on the local and national scenes, garnering a steady stream of shows through the end of the year and earning co-signs from the likes of RapSody and a listing as one of the Chicago RedEye's "15 Artists to Watch in 2014". While she isn't sure whether hip-hop is her ultimate landing spot, the soft-spoken and thoughtful NoName is in an interesting situation currently, as she ruminates on everything 2013 brought and looks forward to what's ahead. Already beginning the new year with spots on several shows around Chicago, she has us all sitting on pins and needles waiting for her debut project, Telefone.
If nothing else, NoNameGypsy is a breath of fresh air. As real and authentic as they come, often taking the stage with her purse still slung across he shoulders, as she did at Reggie's Rock Club this summer for Chance's Lollapalooza After Show. I caught up with her as she was working on music recently and talked about suddenly being known by others, having fans and what's next for NoNameGypsy.
[RH First Glance] Taylor Bennett
Alright, let's get it out of the way. Yes, Taylor Bennett's brother is Chance. Yes, that Chance; the rapper. With that out of the way we can get on to more important aspects of Taylor Bennett's life, such as his sold out debut headlining show last Friday at Reggie's Rock House on Chicago's south loop that had fans lined outside in the freezing rain.The 17-year-old high school senior took the stage to his frenetic "Speed Racer" after a solid lineup showcasing the next wave of Chicago hip-hop to flow from the city. As a packed crowd at Reggie's rapped and sang along to songs like "Heartbreaker" and "Dear Daddy" before turning up to "Rolling With The Gods", it became readily evident that Taylor Bennett is not happy being known only as Chance's brother. Friday night, he looked like he was ready to make his own moves going into the new year.
This year, artists in Chicago had reason to be pressed and hopeful at the same time as they collectively watched Chance rise from the guy down the block to one of the biggest stars in the country. Perhaps no one had a closer front row seat to the experience than the younger Bennett. While there's always competition with an older sibling, Taylor has set out to carve out his own lane in hip-hop with a unique blend of pure rhyming talent, personable nature and thoughtful prose. To be sure, things are very different for Taylor than his brother. Through his success, more eyes are on the younger Bennett, who received a write up in XXL recently and has become a regular on blogs across the country. While Chano was able to come up under the radar, Taylor has been squarely on the map of a lot of rap fans for a minute now. With all the attention, nerves and pressure would be easily understandable, especially for a 17-year-old, but Taylor's not sweating. I had a chance to catch him on the phone after his show, as he was working on his next project, Mainstream Music, to chop it up real quick about living in and out of other people's shadows, growing up in Chicago, his mixtape-The Taylor Bennett Show and more. Check out our Q+A 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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Top Chicago Rappers of 2013
Chicago hip-hop has enjoyed a certain popularity increase over the past couple of years. Where 2012 saw the rise of Chief Keef and "Drill", 2013 brought about a new flavor as listeners from across the country, initially hooked by the drill sound, began to explore the vibrantly eclectic different sides of the city and variety of sounds that make up what is the flourishing Chicago scene today. With seemingly everyone's eyes on the Midwest and so many talented artist rising from the area, we decided to compile a list of the top hip-hop artists from Chicago that had the biggest years in 2013. We based our decisions off of releases, co-signs, shows/tours and general influence throughout to put together who we thought had the best top to bottom 12 month cycles since this time last year. You may not agree with all of our decisions, so let us know in the comments. Without further ado, I give you the Chicago's hip-hop artists that elevated their game the most in 2013.
[RH Feature] Marrow: The Second Time Around
Photo byNolis
Six months ago the dream was all but dead.
Kids These Days officially broke up on May 8, 2013. Two days later I was behind the wheel of my Chevy Trailblazer heading north to Wisconsin. The seven piece funk/soul/rock/hip-hop group that had captivated a generation of a city was no more, and they had retreated north to make sense of it all.
As I drove through the newly warm spring air with drummer Greg Landfair, his girlfriend and a friend, we listened to the eclectic sounds of Traphouse Rock and Hard Times. The group had spanned nearly four years together, essentially amounting to what would later be referred to as their “college days”. With college over, we pulled up to a hastily-erected sign on the side of a seldom-used street in what seemed like the middle of nowhere of Wisconsin to return to where it all began.
As we pulled up to the main house of the Postock farm, the ominous sounds of Macie Stewart’s voice could already be heard emanating from the large, old barn located just on the other side of the red brick structure.
For a group of young adults that achieved so much, the end of the band was almost jarringly abrupt. After a series of tense discussions and numerous arguments, Kids These Days rode out their tour through New York and called it quits. Horn players Nico Segal and J.P. Floyd left from there to join Frank Ocean on tour, Vic Mensa immediately embarked on a solo hip-hop career and the rest headed back to Chicago to figure everything out.