Jack Riedy is a journalist and critic whose work has appeared in Chicago Reader, Block Club Chicago, Complex, VIBE, POW and more. He is also the self-appointed world’s biggest Space Jam fan. Read more of his work at jackriedy.com.
Serpentwithfeet is happy, and you can hear it even when his voice goes beyond language. Midway through “Same Size Shoe” from his new album DEACON, the Baltimore-born singer also known as Josiah Wise introduces a “trumpet” fanfare that’s his own voice layered several times over, heralding a love steeped in understanding and empathy. Released March 26, it celebrates Black gay…
For rap duo Mother Nature, music and education are inseparable. Since joining together in the music scene in college town Champaign, Illinois in 2015 and relocating to Chicago in 2016, Shasta Matthew and Tierney Reed, a.k.a. Klevah and TRUTH, have developed their Miseducation of HipHop workshop series concurrently with their own music careers. The Miseducation of HipHop workshops are music-based,…
Big Boi's solo debut was mired in label drama. Despite being half of one of the most commercially and critically successful rap groups of all time, the Outkast MC dealt with numerous label disputes and delays of 2010's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son oO Chico Dusty. "[Jive Records] said, 'This is a piece of art, and we don't know…
Drill rapper King Von’s new album welcomes the listener to O Block, the South Side housing project he grew up in that the Chicago Sun-Times called “the most dangerous block in Chicago” in 2014. Like Von’s various music videos filmed on the block, the title is a succinct introduction to his perspective, but according to Von it was less an…
Sen Morimoto could do it all himself, but he chooses not to. And though he has a friendly relationship with Asian-American entertainment company 88rising, he’s not content to churn out content for corporations either. The sweet spot for Morimoto’s art exists in the middle, where his music can reflect himself and the communities around him. Originally from Wendell, Mass., the…
The Twilite Tone is a dimension of sound and mind. The producer and songwriter also known as Anthony Khan has been making music for over three decades. He produced nearly every track on Common’s debut 1992 album Can I Borrow A Dollar?, helping to bring Chicago hip-hop to national prominence. After DJing for years, he returned to producing in the…
When Ohmme recorded their new album in isolation, the art-rock duo didn’t expect to release it that way too. Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart traveled 130 miles northwest of Chicago last August to record the bulk of their sophomore album Fantasize Your Ghost with a skeleton crew of collaborators in wide-open Wisconsin farmland. The 10 songs Ohmme recorded in a…
