City of Win is a series curated by Isiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney and written by Alejandro Hernandez that uses prose and photography to create portraits of Chicago musicians and cultural innovators working to create positive change in their communities.
“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 for a decade. He fuses Afrobeats, spoken word, and hip-hop in his projects, embracing the interaction between his cultural heritage and his upbringing in Altgeld Gardens. He says he learned English by picking up Ebonics from his friends at school, many of whom had similar immigrant backgrounds from the Caribbean. At home, he listened to Black artists from across the globe, including Fela, folk and blues singer Tracy Chapman, and Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley.
“There’s a common quote that says, ‘I’m not African because I was born in Africa, but I’m African because Africa was born in me,’” says Tulani. “From reggaeton to reggae to Afrobeats and all the way over to hip-hop, the way we are connected is beautiful. I can understand how [people see the genres] as different things, but they’ve always been the same thing in my mind, in my heart, and in my eyes.”
Guests on Tulani’s newest album include ONU, Trapula Ase, JazStarr, and Leximonee.
Tulani’s latest album, last month’s Rift Valley 773/312, embodies this pan-African pride with guest artists and inspirations from across the diaspora. Intro track “Ginger” features Puerto Rican artist ONU reciting a powerful spoken-word poem, while on the drill-influenced “Angel WIngs” and “Dear Lord” rapper Trapula Ase stands out amid the fast-paced production. The album’s mellow R&B slow jam is “Divine Greatness,” which features soulful vocals from JazStarr and poems recited by Leximonee and ONU at the beginning and end of the track, respectively.
Tulani makes references to African spirituality throughout the album. “Music has been a spiritual experience for me, even since before I knew what spirituality was,” he says. “The first song that made me fall in love with music was Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car.’ I was like eight when I heard that song, and I just really liked the way it sounded, but subconsciously, I was hearing what she was saying. And she was talking about how she really wanted to be somebody . . . and that was very spiritual to me at that time, because that’s how I felt on the inside. And that’s what music does—it speaks to how you feel on the inside.”
At age ten, Tulani got into reggae, discovering the music of Bob Marley and learning about the Rastafarian movement. He cites this knowledge as the catalyst for his decision to become a musician.
At first he just enjoyed the music, but he believes that as he fine-tuned his own spirituality (he follows the Ifá faith), reggae’s strong pan-African and Rastafari themes subconsciously influenced him to strengthen that connection. In August 2022 he opened for Bob Marley’s former band the Wailers in Chicago, and last October he shared a bill with Marley’s grandson Skip in Tempe, Arizona—opportunities that Tulani describes as full-circle moments.
“For me, music and spirituality are intertwined as one,” he says. “[Music] is a tool. It’s a very powerful tool. Just knowing that you give people inspiration, hope, and the drive to go and create, that’s a kind of joy money can’t buy. So I know that no matter where music takes me, my biggest accomplishment is that I’ve inspired people—because they’ve told me, and they’ve shown me.”
Photos by ThoughtPoet of Unsocial Aesthetics (UAES), a digital creative studio and resource collective designed to elevate community-driven storytelling and social activism in Chicago and beyond
