People outside Chicago tend to have two misconceptions about our city and its rap music. One is that the only good Chicago hip-hop comes out of New York. Though Lupe and Rhymefest are still in the neighborhood, Kanye and Common–our chief representatives as far as the mainstream market’s concerned–are Chicagoans on disc alone. The other is that hip-hop in Chicago is all about conscious lyrics, the five elements, and floppy knit hats. It’s nice that people think of us as rap’s smartest city, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to party–this isn’t librarian school or something.
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Of course, I did already know about the molemen: you can’t even say the words rap music within the city limits without at least one of these guys showing up. They run a record label, do DJ gigs, promote events, and provide beats for a long list of rappers–including Chicago MCs Juice, Vakill, and Ang13. Their new comp, Killing Fields, is one big flex for cornerstone members PNS, Panik, and Memo. Their beats veer between scratchy retro boom-bap and mix-tape-style street joints–they even use MIDI gun-cocking sounds, hip-hop’s equivalent of cheesy guitar wanking–and the guest MCs cover a similar range, from indie to almost gangsta. Juice is effortless on the dense, Kanye-worthy “The Come Up,” which blends 70s soul, stuttering kick drum, and a Jay-Z sample. Brooklyn mix-tape star Saigon raps over orchestral stabs and a loopy flute on “2 Hour Banger,” a track as hard and shiny as anything coming out of Rap City’s basement. Killing Fields is a smart, well-played production that’s as tough as all those mix tapes with Lil Wayne disses and bad Photoshop covers.
Ivy League-educated duo KIDZ IN THE HALL met at Penn, but front man Naledge moved back here after school and spits stories that’re all the way Chicago: “Go Ill” is pure south-side street nostalgia, and in “Dumbass Tales” a drug dealer starts slinging in Evanston to “Trust-fund babies / Who sniff glue until they start hallucinating crazy / Rock Abercrombie and listen to Slim Shady.” Their latest, School Was My Hustle (Rawkus), is the kind of smart but bumpable jam that makes hip-hop message boards buzz till they rattle. Producer Double-0 has a melodic, horn-heavy style that owes a lot to the group’s biggest supporter, studio superstar Just Blaze–a debt he’s repaid in part by holding his tongue when Blaze used the same Shaft in Africa sample the Kidz bit for “Don’t Stop” in Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got.” Double-0 has a crate digger’s ear for source material, and his primo tracks sometimes outshine his partner’s rapping. Naledge pops off quick bursts of syncopation as well as anyone else trying to do Nas, but for all the sweet lyrical tricks he pulls off (“Rock for the backpack niggas holdin’ they fists up / Spit it for the ignorant niggas sippin’ from pimp cups”) he can also deliver total duds (“The Henny does wonders on the sex drive / She remind you of your Jeep on a test drive”). School Was My Hustle sounds like it’s still a hook or two away from making the leap from Internet nuts to just nuts.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Rhonda Turnbough.
