Give yourself a voice in our country’s future and get free music out of it, not a bad deal right? Well lucky for rap fans, Vic Mensa is giving you the option to download his brand new EP, There’s Alot Going On, for free and all you have to do is pledge to vote. Sponsored by Mensa and Hip Hop Caucus, if you visit RespectMyVote.com until July 4th, you will get a free WeTransfer download link to Mensa’s new project, simply by pledging to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
Mensa has always been a socially conscious rapper and a social advocate for Chicago, but this time he has took it a step further. Let’s just hope that other rappers take notice and offer fans free music for doing things that we all should be doing anyways.
Pledge to vote and get a free download of Vic Mensa’s new EP here.
‘U Guessed It’ rapper, OG Maco, is back with his brand new anticipated single. Titled ‘Don’t Know’, there is only one thing that the College Park, GA rapper doesn’t know and it’s you. Produced by Money Montage, ‘Don’t Know’ is fire and another quality track from the 2015 XXL Freshman who has been putting out a number of projects since ‘U Guessed It’ took over the rap world in 2014.
The “Summer’s Last Stand”, Chicago’s North Coast Music Festival is returning to Union Park this summer and now fans can check out the festival’s full 2016 lineup. Performing at NCMF this year, which takes place Labor Day Weekend, are Odesza, Umphrey’s McGee, Grouplove, Bassnectar, Zedd, Logic, Raury, Matt & Kim, Ty Dolla $ign, Juicy J, Action Bronson and many more!
This marks another great lineup for North Coast and we couldn’t be more excited. You will definitely want to get your tickets before it’s too late, so check out North Coast’s official website for more information.
Check out North Coast’s full 2016 lineup below and check out our photos from last year’s NCMF here.
Although the original leaked version of the record, which only featured Thugger, was released over a year ago, today we have the official version of Young Thug’s Dun Deal produced track, ‘Friend Of Scotty’. This time with some assistance from Free TC rapper/singer Ty Dolla $ign, Young Thug and Ty kill the track, even though Thugger characteristically has some suspect lyrics throughout the song.
This album is one that has been anticipated since Drake’s latest project with Future. The album What A Time To Be Alive was an album that was mostly fast, hard, crisp rap. The album was taking off with great success. Being played in nearly every club across the world. It was hard to go somewhere and not hear a song on the album. Drake’s latest album, Views, had very high hopes from everyone. It is going to be hard to top his last album. Would he reignite the beef that he had with Meek Mill over the summer? Would he have more songs featuring top artists like Future and Kanye West? People were ready to turn up and jam these songs all summer long. After listening to this album for weeks it is easy to say that Drake has completely transitioned from modern rapper to R&B mogul. You can tell just by the album art that he has been posting on his social media and website. He did a photoshoot with scenery from multiple places in “The 6”. Wearing thick leather coats, posing with models, sitting in his Rolls-Royce Phantom, standing in front of mansions with his dog. Nearly every picture gave a very lavish feel to the project.The most notable being his album cover which depicts him sitting on the edge of the 1500 ft CN Tower in Toronto. Drake religiously reps Toronto, the city with which he calls home. The music on the album is very similar to his early work. He is using his vocal range in many songs and has amazing instrumentals. This album might have some of the best sounds that I’ve heard on an album in a very long time.
Starting off the album is the song ‘Keep The Family Close’. Having an adlib at the beginning of a Drake song is something to be expected. Speaking on how all of his “let’s just be friends” suddenly aren’t there when he needs them. As soon as he is not giving people money or love they are gone. They completely abandon him, even though they seemed like they would have been with him through everything. Moving to L.A. was something that he had to adjust to, and something that he wishes didn’t have to happen. This is a good opening track.
The song ‘Redemption’ is a song where Drake sings about ex flames, it is very similar to ‘Marvin’s Room.’ On the track he reflects on how he gave his girl everything and that it just wasn’t enough. Now that he is one of the most popular rappers in the world she has feelings of redemption every time she thinks of him. She still drives the car that drake bought her, still wears the jewelry and the clothes that he gave her. This does not sit well with Drake. Even though she is happy with another man, Drake doesn’t care. He knows that he is her best option.
‘Faithful’ is a track that has some great featured artists. Starting with an adlib featuring social media goddess Amber Rose where she can be heard saying “I’m high maintenance a little bit but not in a, not in a negative way, I just like extremely expensive things”. Next is a very short 20 second intro verse from Pimp C. Drake talks about a very successful powerful woman that has little time to waste on relationship with him because she is so busy “working” on her career. We get an idea of who he is talking about… possibly the stunning “work work work” artist? If she were to put her time into a relationship with Drake he promises to not have affairs and to be faithful. He wants to put what they talk about in texts into reality. Finishing up the song is dvsn, he absolutely kills it. He has one high note in the song that is just so satisfying. Overall a fantastic song.
One of the more notable songs on the album is ‘One Dance.’ With a touch of reggae and islander influence this song has hit the top of charts. After being featured on Rihanna’s latest album Drake has been accused of being a bandwagoner when it comes to the reggae sounds. Reggae is actually very alive and well in Toronto believe it or not. It is a possibility that Drake had been surrounded by that type of music his whole life. Either way he managed to grab people’s attention. The song talks about how once Drake has a Hennessy in his hand he can’t resist his girl and needs one more dance before he leaves. The instrumentals on the song are extremely catchy. The lyrics are nothing extraordinary but the overall sound of the track is.
Drake and Future have once again collaborated to make a power song. ‘Grammy’ is a reminder that Drake still has aggressive bars to throw. There is no smooth R&B vocals on this track. Once Future is brought in on the song it takes a turn from aggressive to turn up. Repeating the line “They gon’ think I won the Grammy” several times before his verse. Future has dropped 5 very successful albums that many people would argue should have won him a Grammy by now. Kanye West the God of twitter recently took to his social media to let the public know that he believes that Future needs to be at the next Grammy awards. If Future keeps up his work ethic he should make it eventually.
‘Child’s Play ‘is one of my favorite songs on the album. Starting out with a very funny adlib saying “breaking news…. If your girl is at any season opener basketball game….she is sleeping with one of them”. The song has a very catchy repeating instrumental that fades out into a sleek vocal session. Speaking on how he is annoyed with his girls “child play”. He buys her everything and gives her everything that she could ever dream of but she still argues with him at the Cheesecake Factory. The best line on the song and possibly the album is when he says “Momma is a saint, yes she raised me real good. All because of her I don’t do you like I should. Don’t make me give you back to the hood. Don’t make me give you back”. This caused some controversy among people on the internet saying that Drake didn’t respect women. While I’m definitely not of that same opinion, the song is still very catchy and fluid.
‘Views’ starts out like a Chance The Rapper song with a gospel choir and fiercely transitioned into a hard hitting bar session. This is Drakes “I told you so” track. Putting all of his competition and haters in their place with this track reminding them who’s king. Who put in the work, who’s the rap mogul of 2016, who gets the girl, who runs the game? That’s right, Aubrey Drake Graham does. He lets them know of all his accomplishments and how he didn’t need anyone to get him there unlike all of his competitors. He tells them that he jump started their careers.
Finishing off the album is ‘Hotline Bling.’ This song took over the internet months before the album was dropped. With a very plain but very affective music video Drake managed to become an internet meme. He wasn’t necessarily being made fun of, it just became an iconic dance. The song talks about how whenever his cell phone rings late at night he knows that it is a certain girl that wants his love. It is the perfect song to end the album and one that you would expect to end it.
Throughout the entire album there are lines dropped ripping apart Meek Mill. Drake has a way with music where you can listen to a song and get lost in the instrumental and not even pay attention to the lyrics sometimes. It’s the same thing if you were to listen to song in a different language. As long as the song sounds good you continue to listen. There are some people that listen to Drake’s music for the sound and some that listen for the poetry and lyrics. That is why he kills the game so much. He is able to strive in both departments. Drake has a very bright future ahead of him and i’m very excited to see what he cooks up in the future. I am very satisfied with this album and I will have something to jam to all summer long.
If you couldn’t get wristbands in time for Lollapalooza’s huge 25th Anniversary or if you just want to extend your Lollapalooza plans, don’t worry because the premiere Chicago music festival has announced over 50 aftershows/parties featuring 110+ artists. With some awesome intimate performances from some of the lineup’s best artists, including Jane’s Addiction, Major Lazer Soundsystem (Diplo, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire), X Ambassadors, The 1975, Mac Miller, Halsey, Vince Staples and many more, you can catch some memorable performances at some of Chicago’s best and most historic venues.
Celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Social Experiment’s collaborative album, Surf, Chance The Rapper and Donnie Trumpet have released a brand new 11-minute record, ‘The First Time’. Produced by Nico Segal & Nate Fox for The Social Experiment, the new record isn’t even a month removed from Chance’s new solo project, Coloring Book, but that doesn’t matter because the song is definitely a must listen.
While we don’t know if The Social Experiment (the Chance led Chicago collective which is much more than just Chance’s band) are still cooking up their collection of collaborative albums, of which Surf was just the first, we certainly hope so. When you get Donnie, Chance and company on the same record, you are bound to wind up with a quality track, some of which come in at 11-minutes long like this one.
Half of the Chicago rap duo, Leather Corduroys, who released one of our favorite mixtapes in Season last year, Joey Purp has released his new solo project. Titled, iiiDrops, the SAVEMONEY artist’s tape has features from Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Mick Jenkins, Saba and more. Don’t look past the solo tracks on iiiDrops though, as Purp delivers with stand out tracks like ‘Morning Sex’ and ‘Say You Do’. Upon first listen, everything from the production, features, and of course Purp’s verses are fire.
Off his new and highly anticipated project, Coloring Book, Chicago’s Chance The Rapper has released his new music video for ‘No Problem’ ft. Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz. Featuring a number of cameos, Young Thug and DJ Khaled just to name a couple, the Austin Vesely directed video is filmed all over, from 79th Street in the Windy City to 2 Chainz Atlanta bachelor pad. The music video comes with the release of Chance’s new free album on all platforms.
Watch Chance The Rapper’s music video for ‘No Problem’ below.
Last night English alt-rock band The 1975 traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to perform a sold out show at The Rave’s Eagles Ballroom. Performing for an excited crowed of a few thousand, the ‘Chocolate’ artists did not travel alone either. In support of the show, the guys were joined by The Japanese House and Grammy nominated London natives, Wolf Alice. From top to bottom, fans in Milwaukee certainly left with their money’s worth after three memorable performances in the night.
Kicking off the night was The Japanese House, and despite minor sound issues in their opening song, the group gave a unique sound and performed a few tracks from their most recent Clean EP. Unlike Wolf Alice and The 1975, The Japanese House’s set tonight was their first introduction to many in attendance, but they certainly made a great first impression to their new Wisconsin fans.
Next up was 4-piece alt-rock band, Wolf Alice. Coming up a huge nomination at the 2016 Grammy Awards, for the Best Rock Performance, Wolf Alice demonstrated to fans why their deserved such an honor. The Ellie Rowsell led group performed a number of their track, include their hit single ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ and a few tracks from 2014 EP, Creature Songs. To any 1975 fans planning on traveling 90 miles south of Milwaukee to catch the 25th Anniversary of Lollapalooza, not only will The 1975 be performing, but Wolf Alice is currently scheduled to put on a great set as well.
After a brief intermission, as production set up the stage and house lights turned up and a buzzing noise was heard throughout the venue as anticipation continued to build up to its maximum heigh, it was time for The 1975 to take stage. Matthew Healey and company opened their set with their I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It record ‘Love Me’. Screams could be heard throughout the night from their biggest fans as the group performed the majority of their 2016 album, mixed in with some of their earlier work. After a four-track encore, Milwaukee saw one of it’s best alternative performances of the year. If you were left wanting more, or simply missed out and couldn’t get tickets in time, The 1975 will return to the Midwest in just a couple months for a Lollapalooza performance that will surely leave people talking.
Check out our photos from The 1975’s performance below and check out their current tour dates here.
The Early Registration 