Earlier this week, the lovely and talented Alessia Cara teased a remix to her second single ‘Wild Things’, from her debut album Know-It-All. Recruiting the talents of ‘Me, Myself & I’ rapper G-Eazy, Cara and G-Eazy go well together on the addictive record. While the Canadian singer’s parts remain unchanged, G-Eazy gives a great verse to the record. Alessia Cara, while pop, has definitely been embraced by the hip-hop community so we are excited to see more of her rapper collaborations in the future.
After the long anticipated releases of Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo and Drake’s Views, there still remained two huge projects that rap fans were patiently waiting for in 2016, Frank Ocean’s sophomore release Boys Don’t Cry and Chance The Rapper’s first solo project since his 2013 breakout and sophomore mixtape, Acid Rap. And while Frank’s fans still have an indefinite wait ahead of them, the rap world rejoiced as Chance The Rapper finally blessed fans with his third mixtape free album. Titled Coloring Book, a title that was kept secret until its release, this may be Chance’s top project yet and a definite and promised improvement from his Social Experiment collaboration and heavily guest featured 2015 project, Surf. While Coloring Book still shares an all-star cast of features (Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Future, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, 2 Chainz and many more) that Surf made headlines with, it excels in the overall quality of music and is a much more cohesive project than Surf, similar to Chance’s efforts on Acid Rap, yet an album that differs from Acid Rap in many ways. Three years for a solo project since Chance The Rapper became the new young face of Chicago hip-hop may have seemed like an eternity, but we can now say that it was well worth the wait.
Mike Posner has made his most honest album yet with At Night, Alone. Titled after how the Detroit singer/songwriter tells fans the way the LP should be listened too, Posner certainly took his time for sophomore album. After the release of his 2010 debut, 31 Minutes To Takeoff, which was Posner’s third project in just two years (when you include his 2009 mixtapes which launched the singer/songwriter into the college music scene), Posner’s hiatus between albums even had Frank Ocean fans feeling sympathetic. And with the great success of Posner’s breakout single, ‘Cooler Than Me’, and a number of scrapped projects, fans began to wonder if they had seen the last of Mike Posner.
Fortunately for fans, Mike Posner shed any doubts that he could escape the “one hit wonder” title with the success of his single, ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’. Like the success of ‘Cooler Than Me’, Mike Posner’s second breakout single did not see it’s success overnight. Both tracks were available for many months before an upbeat club mix came in to save the day for the record’s commercial success. While I personally enjoy and prefer the OG versions of both records, the remixes were a smart move and much needed to share Posner’s music with a broader audience. And not only is ‘I Took a Pill In Ibiza’ on par with the success Posner saw in 2010, but the record landed him his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Music charts.
Chance The Rapper’s highly anticipated follow up to his breakout sophomore project Acid Rap is less than a day away! Titled Chance 3, today fans have another sneak peak of the project with the Chicago rapper’s new Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz collaboration, ‘No Problem’. Debuting on Zane Lowe’s Beats1 this morning, ‘No Problem’ sticks with the gospel infused sound that Chance has helped bring to rap music, especially in the past year, and the track is fire. His first solo project since 2013, get excited for Chance 3 tomorrow, May 13th.
Zayn is doing things as a solo artist that he never saw in One Direction. Whether it’s breaking records that 1D never reached, or making the type of music that he otherwise wasn’t allowed to, it is really cool to see Zayn doing Zayn. And while this one doesn’t have the awesome steamy cameo from Gigi Hadid that ‘Pillow Talk’ had, Zayn’s new music video for ‘Like I Would’ is amazing in its own right. Full of futuristic visuals, neon body suits and laser lights, ‘Like I Would’ is definitely a must see for any Zayn fan, or any fan of music generally.
Lucky for Wisconsin music fans, the world’s largest music festival Summerfest has no breed restrictions, because Grammy award winning multi-platinum recording artist Pitbull has been announced as the festival’s final headliner. Performing at Summerfest‘s Marcus Amphitheatre stage on Thursday, June 30th, Pitbull will be joined by special guest, Prince Royce. After a headlining performance at Summerfest in 2013, Pitbull will surely shine on the familiar stage.
Tickets for Pitbull’s Summerfest performance go on sale May 14th at 10 a.m. and you can score your tickets on Ticketmaster.com.
After supporting singer/songwriter Charlie Puth on his huge spring tour, Phoebe Ryan has announced her own headlining tour that will kick off this summer. Titled the “Boyz N Poizn” tour, the ‘Chronix’ singer will hit the road on July 5th in Washington DC and will make stops in Chicago, New York, Toronto and more, until the tour concludes July 24th in Seattle. Ryan is one of this year’s emerging artists to watch and she isn’t traveling alone either, as electronic/pop duo Cardiknox will be supporting Ryan on the tour.
Check out Phoebe Ryan’s “Boyz N Poizn” tour dates below!
Lollapalooza is going to be huge in 2016. Not only is it the Chicago festival’s big 25th anniversary, but the festival has now expanded into a 4-day festival, starting the weekend on a Thursday. And as always, the artist lineup is stacked, as fans this year will catch performances from Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, J. Cole, the Red Hot Chile Peppers, LCD Soundsystem, Future, Ellie Goulding and many more. Kicking off on July 28th and ending on the 31st, Lolla just may be the top festival of the 2016 season.
But with every great festival comes hard choices, and now that Lollapalooza has announced its full schedule, it is time to start deciding between sets. Lana Del Rey or J. Cole? Alunageorge or G-Eazy? Vic Mensa or Disclosure? So many great artist, leaving many fans to pick favorites…
Lollapalooza will be here before you know it, so check out the full schedule at Lollapalooza’s official website now!
If you’ve ever seen comedian Aziz Ansari’s stand-up review of an R. Kelly concert and viewed it as sheer entertainment and comedy, instead of an accurate representation of what an R. Kelly performance is actually like, then you were wrong. In Ansari’s special, “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening”, the Parks and Recreation comedian describes an elaborate production where Kelly splices his music with unimaginable theatrics, video clips, entertaining conversations with the audience, and wild pyrotechnics. Not only is all the above 100% factual, but fans in attendance tonight at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL can attest to it all first hand. To say R. Kelly is a one of the best showmen from the past two decades would be an understatement, and tonight he certainly delivered for his hometown crowd of Chicago.
If R. Kelly was anyone but R. Kelly, we would have expected “The Buffet Tour” to open with a performance of the majority of tracks from Kelly’s most recently LP, The Buffet, with a few of the Chicago singer’s biggest hits mixed in throughout the set and in the encore. And if that predictable and structured layout would have took place tonight, it would have been just fine and fans would have certainly left with their money’s worth. However the night’s performance was nothing but structured and predictable, and totally rewrites your expectations going into a live show. And in the most unique way, despite the show being a weird random mess (for lack of better words), it all worked and fans were more than entertained throughout the night. Beyond the music, highlights of the night included R. Kelly responding to internet haters by watching Kobe’s last game on a 50 ft. screen, a flying blimp robot named R. Bot, and random videos of R. Kelly playing basketball and talking about his love of chili. R. Kelly reinvents the wheel when it doesn’t need reinventing, and in doing so he takes us down a whole new and amazing path that we never knew existed.
Despite being dubbed “The Buffet Tour”, tonight’s performance focused around R. Kelly’s massive catalog of hits instead of pinpointing on just his most recent project. Fans went from feeling sexy during ‘Bump N’ Grind’ to getting emotional while singing along to ‘I Believe I Can Fly’. Kelly’s 2-hour long performance truly reminds you of his consistency in the R&B world and the massive number of hit records that R. Kelly has delivered throughout the years. While the video intermissions and added production value certainly make R. Kelly’s performances stand out, it’s the individual performances of tracks that serve as the highlights of the night. The Buffet Tour left not one fan hungry for more tonight, but many would definitely come back for second helpings if they could.
Check out our photos from tonight’s performance below and check out the remaining dates for The Buffet Tourhere.
Just a few weeks removed from her huge headlining performances at Coachella, Ellie Goulding brought her Delirium World Tour to Chicago’s Allstate Arena in Rosement, IL. What will be Goulding’s second Windy City performance of the summer, as she is scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza’s big 25th year anniversary, the arena was packed with Goulding’s fans who came ready to dance the night away. The ‘Love Me Like You Do’ singer didn’t come alone however, as the English singer/songwriter brought British electronic trio, Years & Years, and the immensely talented, Bebe Rexha.
Kicking off the night as the arena began to fill up was singer/songwriter Bebe Rexha. Perhaps known best now for her G-Eazy collaboration, ‘Me, Myself & I’, a record that Rexha wrote before it found its home on the Bay Area rapper’s most recent LP, Rexha is one of the most underrated songwriters of the past half-decade. Rexha got her big break when Eminem bought her track ‘Monster’, a record that previously had little backing from label heads. Lucky for Rexha, ‘Monster’ became a hit and ever since then the Brooklyn native has continued to prove her doubters wrong. Rexha has had some big festival appearances, has worked with the likes of Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, David Guetta and Nicki Minaj (to name a few), and now of course she is on a huge U.S. tour leg with Ellie Goulding. During her live performances, Rexha converses with the crowd, reminding fans of catalog of records that she has worked on behind the scenes. Don’t be mistaken though, Rexha is much more than just a talented writer and is well on her way to putting “Bebe Rexha the artist” at the forefront of the records that she produces.
Following Rexha’s performance, electronic trio and London natives, Years & Years, hit the stage in Rosemont. Consisting of frontman Olly Alexander, Mikey Goldsworthy (bass guitar) and Emre Turkmen (keys), Years & Years has seen a great amount of success back home, especially with their hit single ‘King’, and that success has been carrying over to the states. Tonight fans saw performances of a number of the band’s records from their 2015 debut, Communion. Although they have been together since 2010, they really took their time in putting together a quality first studio project, and the results showed. Not only did their debut receive great reception from critics across the board, but its live performances tonight were definitely embraced by Ellie’s electropop fans in attendance.
After a brief intermission between sets, it was time for Ellie Goulding to hit the stage. Goulding has consistently raised in popularity in the U.S., and the energy throughout the arena was evidence of just that. After her 2010 debut, Lights, it would have been hard for many Chicago fans to imagine Ellie headlining her own show at the Allstate Arena. Just a few years ago, Goulding performed at Chicago’s Schubas Tavern, an intimate 550-capacity club in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood. In just a couple year’s time, Goulding would return to the city for a daytime set at Lollapalooza in 2013. So for the Delirium singer to headline an arena show that foreshadows a headlining Lolla performance is huge and indicative of her global success in the past few years.
Goulding’s performance tonight was very similar to her headlining set at Coachella this year, a performance which many thousands caught, whether live in Indio or via the festival’s live webcast. Opening with the Intro to her 2015 album, where the tour get its name, and transitioning into the LP’s second track, ‘Aftertaste’, Goulding performed the majority of Delirium, which brought fans singles like ‘Something In The Way You Move’ and ‘Love Me Like You Do’. Ellie Goulding’s performance tonight was much more than just a carbon copy of the album however. Mixing in intimate acoustic performances, a beautiful tribute cover to Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’, and performing a few fan favorites from her first two albums, Halcyon and Lights, Ellie certainly put on a memorable performances that fans in attendance will definitely want to relive when Ellie returns to Lollapalooza this year on July 31st, as one of the festival’s final performances celebrating a quarter-century of great live music. If you get a chance to catch Goulding at Grant Park this year, jump on the opportunity.
Check out our photos from tonight’s performance below and check out the remaining dates for the Delirium World Tourhere.
