| “I Want to Show Another Path”: An Interview With Rufus Sims | November 1, 2023 |
Chicago street rapper, Rufus Sims, tells Thomas Hobbs what it’s like growing up with a dad with a legendary reputation, battling PTSD from gun violence, house arrest and finding salvation.
| ShowYouSuck’s Rocky Horror Rap | July 22, 2015 |
More pop culture escapism from Chicago’s most underrated rapper.
| On the Front Porch, Looking at the Corner: An Interview with Saba | February 23, 2015 |
Saba catches up with Max Bell about growing up on the edge of the 'hood and the 'burbs, how he got started in rap, and about learning to play the piano with "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
| Body The Beat, Embody the Street: Vic Spencer “The Cost of Victory” | February 10, 2015 |
Will Hagle shines a light on the veteran freshman of Chicago, Vic Spencer, whose newest album sounds nothing like Ye or Chance.
Over the last half-decade, Trackstar has established a level of consistency and quality in the mixtape game that would’ve made made him a legend if he screamed more and we lived in the days when we thrived off DJ compilations copped on Melrose and Venice Beach, and Canal Street. He is a friend, so bias […]
| Saba Rides Into the “ComfortZone” | August 5, 2014 |
Kyle Ellison loves the Top Gun soundtrack A breakout hit on the scale of Chance’s Acid Rap doesn’t just burn bright and fade away, its embers continue to crackle and spark. Eventually they’ll settle, but in the meantime it’s just as likely that the wind will change and reignite flickers into flames. Before I run […]
| Towkio is Drifting: Chicago’s New Juke Hope | July 11, 2014 |
Tosten Burks doesn’t really like potato salad. And now, this week’s friendly reminder that whether or not you dig what fame and Los Angeles hath wrought Chance the Rapper, the rest of SAVEMONEY continues to kill it. Eschewing the Social Experiment’s analog pop blues that recall the early teen melodicism of Kids These Days (surprise, […]
| Learning How to Pick Up Nuns with Alex Wiley | June 11, 2014 |
Tosten Burks is more of a transignificationist than a transubstantiationist. The oft-hoodied, ever-bucket-hatted Alex Wiley dropped out of Whitney Young High School at 16, when he stopped being able to focus in class. The doctor prescribed him the highest dose of Adderall legal for a minor, but Wiley couldn’t keep his attention deficit disorder under […]
| The Blogger, the Engineer, and the Future of Chicago Hip-Hop | January 29, 2014 |
Tosten Burks deserves a day off. The Blogger and the Engineer The living room is not a living room – overstuffed couches swapped for 50 thousand dollars worth of studio equipment, tile floor crowded with new friends and old. A funky smoke lingers. They line up for the dining room that is not a dining […]
