[This is another long one where I get wistful and go on tangents about the state of hip hop in the Chicago Party scene; feel free to skip the blahblahblah and look at the pretty pictures]

Even though this city is always going to come out with world class hip hop, I’m not sure that this is ever going to be a world class hip hop city.

Right now, we’ve got so much good shit comin out. Former Chicagoans like Common and Kanye are so fucking huge and mainstream, they get played in elevators and dentists offices and wedding receptions. Rhymefest and Lupe Fiasco are doing it real big, and a lot of people are coming up. Mic Terror had a track up on the United States of Tara, Hollywood Holt was gettin pumped and animated by Adult Swim, The Cool Kids are working with everyone from Lil Wayne to Mountain Dew. GLC, Kid Sister, Vyle, Million $ Mano and his duo He Say, She Say are blowing up the underground, the dance party circuit, and the crossover scene internationally, with groups like YeaBig + Kid Static and BBU comin up close behind. Plus we can claim Twista, who fucking owns. But where is all the hip hop live?

I started partying in this city when the internet was a completely different beast. There weren’t social networking sites, and I think the scenes were a lot different because of it. At one time or another, most of those famous names above could be seen rocking mics alongside Organic Mind Unit, Pugslee Atoms, the Molemen, and Army of Juan at places like the Chase Cafe in Rogers Park, Transmission Gallery in the West Loop, Square One and Buddy Gallery in Wicker Park, 556 Gallery in Pilsen and at Lyricist Loft, right here where Sounds From Underground happened. Which isn’t to say much. Like finds like all over the city, whether it’s punk rock or hip hop, but there was also a diversity in the scene.

Back when George Clinton, Blackbyrd McKnight, and a couple dozen other Funkadelics were in town grooming Secret Agent Bill to be the next Red Hot Chili Peppers, they were part of an amazing loft party scene, and hip hop was always a part of it, whether it was paired with punks like SAB or One Last Walk, or art spectacle freak outs like Environmental Encroachment and The Peoples Republic of Delicious Food. The only place I really see that happening right now is at Quennect Four, which regularly does some awesome shit across genre lines, but shouldn’t stand alone in doing it. And when it was done right, there wasn’t, and there shouldn’t be, a separation of crowds. DJs would spin and people would dance. Bands would play and people would dance.

I think that element has become lost in the dance party scene, and become something alien. Someone goes up on stage, and it’s time to watch, and if you don’t like standing and watching, you get bored and you leave. I think there was an element of that here, where there shouldn’t have been.

Sounds from Underground featured some incredible acts. V8 came out of that older school scene and has done everything from backpacker shit to completely avant garde hip hop weirdness and he served as host for the night, alongside Hilary Rawk and the music blog Sun Ones, bringing in acts like Sole (from Anticon), Awol One (from Shapeshifters), Icon the Mic King, Ceschi, Factor, and Imaginary Friends. Shazam Bangles and The Flashbulb served as DJs for the night and a slew of others, ranging from Vyle to Sharkula showed up to drop a verse.

But a lot of people didn’t seem to get it. Sounds from Underground was a completely immersive event, with live screenprinting, live painting, two photobooths (c/o ourselves and Mr. Ryan Mitchell), and even 18andCounting running around hiding art like a fucked up Easter Bunny so there shouldn’t have been a 4th wall, but for a lot of people there was.

Which isn’t to say it wasn’t fun. A couple hundred people were drenched with sweat and sloppy drunk the end of the night, but another couple hundred skipped out early. I think this city needs to be retrained not to treat things as either “parties” or “shows” but just music as music. Which sounds like some hippie dippy shit so I’ma shut up now.

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original gallery