Towards the end of the summer, Odd Future’s U.S. tour hit the lovely city of Chicago. Before their show at the Vic Theater, Hodgy Beats and LeftBrain, who together form the group MellowHype, came through SoundScape for a Closed Session. Based what we’ve seen in videos and in concert, we braced ourselves for what we...
Our Closed Session with Blu took place in February of 2011. Blu was at work on his major label debut, NoYork!. After building a substantial underground following, releasing an undeniable underground classic, and doing whatever he wanted musically, Blu was making his first entrance into the mainstream. That seemed to be on his mind throughout...
When DJ Babu came out to Chicago last October to DJ at our “Natural High” release party, I knew we could set up a pretty ill Closed Session with some of Chicago’s rising emcees. Babu left it up to me, and I asked Sir Michael Rocks of The Cool Kids and Vic Mensa of Kids...
It’s not exactly easy finding artists for Closed Sessions and Digital Freshness. They have to be in the right space at the right time. The stars couldn’t have aligned any better for Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire. Coming off our Closed Session with Action Bronson, eXquire wasn’t just the next logical choice, he was the only choice....
CyHi The Prynce was close to the edge. Close to living in a car, close to finding a dead end in the music business. Then it all changed. He caught the attention of Kanye West, signed to G.O.O.D. Music, had a grand breaking out party during the B.E.T. Cypher, propelling himself to the cover of...
Vonnegutt were just some “down South Georgia boys” when they arrived in Chicago for Lollapalooza in late summer of 2010. The band drove from Georgia to Chicago, making the trip without any sleep, and reached SoundScape Studios on a warm Thursday night to participate in a Closed Session. Being fans of Chicago’s buzzing Hip Hop...
We recorded this session during Pitchfork 2010, during a hectic Friday afternoon. The night before we had our first Digital Freshness at Beauty Bar with Freddie Gibbs, and this sessions was actually set up around 3AM after the bar closed and craziness subsided. Ninjasonik was not playing at Pitchfork, but they had a couple after...
In the very early days of Closed Sessions, the early-early days, we would sit around and talk about our hopes for the label and what we wanted to do. I remember at those earliest meetings, we would throw around the names of our favorite emcees and make a hopeful list of future Closed Sessions...
Shortly after we secured Action Bronson to play the November edition of Digital Freshness, I told him jokingly via Twitter that Chicago’s finest meats and cheeses awaited him in the windy city upon arrival. I say that to many of our guests, but this time it took on a new meaning given Action’s former career...
“We don’t just want to add to the catalog, we want to be on top of the catalog,” says Moonie, one half of the Chicago Hip Hop crew, L.E.P. Bogus Boys. The catalog he is referring to is the Closed Sessions catalog of original music and documentary footage compiled over a 2 year span that...
