From the beginning of the bop scene, to securing a deal with A$AP Rocky's label, Sicko Mobb are capitalizing on the diverse hotbed of Chicago's fertile soil.

Tosten Burks ordered the ravioli. If you’ve spent time in or near Wicker Park during the last decade-and-a-half, there’s a good chance cult DIY rapper Brian Wharton, more commonly known as Sharkula, has tried to sell you a CD or cassette. He tried to sell me one once, outside an Italian restaurant, where I had […]

Tosten Burks hates seasons. Blink twice—and we’re 21 months removed from Acid Rap, with Chance in the stratosphere, Vic on the verge, Chop in the studio with ‘Ye, Tink with Timba, Herb with Nicki, and Louie crowned future king of Canada. Still unclear, can Bennett and Mensah’s fellow piggy bankers squeeze into the frame? And […]

Tosten Burks is often mistaken for Alec Burks and Trey Burke Apologies to Lucki Eck$, but Supa Bwe is Chicago’s weirdest Xanax addict. The eponymous debut EP from Hurt Everybody—the trio Supa helms with 18-year-old time wrinkler Carl and cloud-obliterating producer Mulatto—stabbed into the cold universe this July draped in Egyptian mythology, Joanna Newsome samples, […]

Evan Nabavian is familiar.  Whatever the circumstances, Chief Keef’s dismissal from Interscope signals the end of Chicago drill rap’s dalliance with the mainstream. The scene failed to capture America’s imagination the way trap did. Local legends will likely stay local and talent unearthed by DJ Bandz will have limited appeal outside of Chicago and astute rap […]

Dan Adu-Gyamfi is now on Twitter.  On Halloween, the favorite holiday of all goons, Chiraq native Chief Keef dropped the sequel to the project that made him a star and helped propel the drill movement. Back from the Dead 2 finds Sosa slowly returning to form after dropping two horrendous mixtapes last year. In the 2008 […]

Thomas Johnson is hyper as a heart attack Chicago’s been in a predicament over the last few years. While the quality of its music is steadily on the rise, the quality of life of many of those making the music has been on a steep decline. Drill scene artists  like Chief Keef reflect the warzone […]

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 […]

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, […]

Magnificent, heavenly the god Kyle Ellison stays bent It finally happened – a rapper is going by the name of God. If Yeezus was too subtle a concept for you, or you feel that the Rap Gods, Based Gods and God’s Sons of the world are beating around the burning bush, then let’s put a […]