“When I started skating, I was definitely in a creative rut, and I needed to push myself in a way,” says Chicago R&B singer Loona Dae. “It’s scary to fall, but I found a lot of refuge in skating because it’s just you and the skateboard. It taught me to trust myself more and rewired […]

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“Music is a spiritual thing.” These are the words of legendary Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, and if any artist in Chicago still carries the same pan-African spirit Fela did so many years ago, it’s Chai Tulani. Born in Kenya and raised in Chicago, Tulani has been a fixture in the city’s creative community […]

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“I’m not tryna get high, man. I’m tryna get righteous,” says Stock Marley. He’s in his west-side apartment, delicately rolling up a joint. “This is a daily sacrament. It’s a way of life. I’m not tryna do things fast—I’m trying to do it right. With the weed, with the music, we’re just trying to be […]

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Ten years ago, Chicago artist Calez was part of a changing of the guard in Chicago music. The south-suburban rapper made a name for himself locally during the peak of the blog era: as a member of the BRKF$T Club collective (part of a larger crew called 2008ighties), he collaborated with many future Chicago staples, […]

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Our current understanding of how galaxies form is that they’re shaped by the clumping together of dark matter, which makes up the invisible scaffolding of the universe. Clouds of gas and dust gather along this scaffolding, slowly collapsing into stars that evolve and then die in supernova explosions. These explosions create clouds of gas that […]

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“I got all these friends but I still feel alone, imagine that,” says CantBuyDeem. These are the first words in Reality Raps, a short film created by and starring the multidisciplinary south-side artist. He’s a rapper, a model, a graphic designer, and now a filmmaker. Reality Raps, like the album of the same name that […]

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Sitting under the warm blue lights of his home studio, Chicago producer Thelonious Martin reflects on his musical influences as he studies a set of shelves completely stacked with obscure vinyl. On the shelves’ top right corner rest thick biographies about two of the greatest innovators in their respective genres: jazz pianist Thelonious Monk and […]

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It was a cloudy March day when I walked into Classick Studios to conduct my next interview for this series on Chicago artists impacting their communities. I was greeted by one of the purest forms of hip-hop: a bevy of rappers freestyling together, rhyming to the classic instrumentals of Mike Jones’s “Still Tippin’” and the […]

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Behind a great artist, there’s often a great manager. The average fan likely never thinks about the people who manage their favorite musicians, but they’re the ones typically handling the behind-the-scenes work on the business side of the entertainment industry. Whether they’re booking performances, negotiating contracts, or just acting as voices of reason for the […]

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Stony Island Park native Recoechi’s assertive bars carry a positive message.

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Freddie Old Soul credits music with helping her heal and find God.

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Poet and organizer JazStarr builds bridges on the page and in the community.

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How parenthood and the 2020 uprisings impacted Tiara Déshané’s approach to music

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The hip-hop duo’s latest EP, Nature’s World, dropped June 10.

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Englewood rapper Heavy Crownz blends art and community organizing.

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