As odd as it may seem, we’re getting ready to wrap all summer festivities and enter another glorious fall in the city of Chicago. With that of course comes a highly anticipated Bears season, but also a slew of new music from our local talents that have continued to put on for our city worldwide. With looks from Common, Sir Michael Rocks, GLC, The Blended Babies, BJ The Chicago Kid, Esohel, The O’MY’s, Twista, MC Adad, Freddie Gibbs, YP, Trinity + More.
We start things off with Common announcing an auto-biography titled after his 3rd LP One Day It’ll all Make Sense. “He tells what it was like for a boy with big dreams growing up on the South Side of Chicago. He reveals how he almost quit rapping after his first album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, sold only two thousand copies. He reflects on his controversial invitation to perform at the White House, a story that grabbed international headlines. And he talks about the challenges of balancing fame, love, and fatherhood.” Pre-ordes are available now and the book is out September 13th. And of course The Dreamer, The Believer is set for 11/22.
In other Chicago rap-star news Lupe Fiasco stated he will be feeding 100 people each day until the end of the month, across the city. This is an extension of the Lupe Fiasco Foundation, as they started this during a single day last year, Lupe hopes they can continue to grow and expand the food drive into other community building acts such as school supply drives as the time passes.
Twista recently announced he has been in Los Angeles working on his new LP titled The Dark Horse. A fitting name for the sleeper MC’s next release, as we can expect a leak from the LP soon.
The L.E.P Bogus Boys while on the road in Boston, linked with Karmaloop TV who took a page from our book and asked the boys about their Mobb Deep Collab as well as speaking against racism. On a similar note, we had a very dope session with the Boys at Soundscape recently, so lookout for more on that session soon. #ReclaimYourTV. In other “Low End” news, YP announced Still Awake, his follow-up to last winter’s successful release No Sleep with DJ RTC will drop September 13th.
New Music & Videos
MC ADaD linked with LA producer Exile again, this time for “Slowly“ off Exile’s Intro to The Outro mixtape presented by LRG. If these two keep creating tracks like this and “Sound Is God” it’s about time Exile does a full project with someone not from Cali.
GLC has been in heavy rotation in the city as well as the internets as he readies his mixtape with Tator Chip, I Know Who You Pimped Last Summer by dropping visuals for the banger featuring Cory Mo titled “Get Paper, Stack Change”. To complement his new material with DJ Tator Chip, GLC also released Young Platinum with fellow BluRocker McKenzie Eddy. Young Platinum is the new project from Eddy McKenzie (DD172 co-founder) and features a heavy input from GLC as well as artists like Murs, Dash, Kool A.C., Cam’ron.
Sir Michael Rocks hit us with new visuals from his upcoming project, Special Edition Grand Master Deluxe, as Tye Hilly’s “Cell Dope” is another solid release from the two. The Ken Koller directed video shows the crew swagging at Oak Street beach, while the rest of wait for Mikey’s anticipated solo material which more and more will be dropping very soon. Keep ya ears open. Project Mayhem recently cliqued with Mikey for “Living Proof” presumably off their upcoming LP Middle America.
Ever since I heard Cudi’s “The End” Feat. GLC & Chip The Ripper, The Blended Babies have been some of my favorite producers out. And since that point in time I haven’t heard a wack beat from the duo. This week they hit the rounds with tracks from Esohel, The O’My’s with Boldy James, and of course GLC. Eshohel’s “Oh No” feels like a throwback to the early 2000’s in Chicago Hip-Hop, word to the Molemen crew. On “Hubcaps (Holdin’ On)“The O’My’s laced some dope sounds over babies production, while Boldy James runs through the everyday turmoil that is Detroit city. With GLC’s “Get Paper, Stack Change” being one of my many songs in constant rotation now, his upcoming work with The Blended Babies, is making me very anixous.
Aside from collaborating with what seems like every emerging artist in the game, BJ The Chicago Kid recently linked with Swedish electro/indie-pop band Little Dragon to cover their song “2wice”. Off his upcoming mixtape The Life of Love’s Cupid, i’m loving everything BJ has put out lately, and hope he can gain more of the national acclaim other R&B’ers Frank Ocean and The Weeknd have received.
Chicago emcee Trinity releases ‘A La Mode’ featuring Poet Jasminum McMullen. ‘A La Mode’ is the second track released from her upcoming album The City is Ours. While on the road with Jeezy, Freddie and Mr. Seventeen-Five had some time to hit Cosmic Kev’s radio show, in which Gibbs proved why he is THE BEST pure spitter in the game at the moment.
Here we go again, another Friday and another great week in Chicago Hip-Hop. We here at RH are gearing up for our show with Questlove next Friday at The Mid, tix are only $15.00 for legendary composer, so don’t miss this one. If you’d like to contribute something to Local Sounds, just hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or send an email to seanck@rubyhornet.com . Happy Weekend!
