SEARCH FOR: CVO FILMS

Lil Zay Osama has been a legend in Chicago for more years than I could probably count, but it seems like, over the last few years, he has really blown up more than ever before. It seems like anyone who matters in the rap world here is on his side, and anyone who doesn’t ride with the Windy City spitter is behind the curve. Although he has come across my radar for a while, it wasn’t until recently (in the grand scheme of things) that I really started to pay attention, and I am sure glad I did. Zay has worked with the biggest names in drill music including Lil Durk, G Herbo, and more, but he has also collaborated with superstars not necessarily classified in this subgenre like Icewear Vezzo, Benny the Butcher, Sada Baby, Sheff G, Jackboy, Lil Tjay, and even Sean Kingston, amongst way too many others to count. His connections don’t stop there, though, because especially recently, he has been tapping in with some of Chi-Town’s most prominent young icons including the DCG Brothers, Fastmoney Ant, and even PGF Nuk, an emcee who is considered to be one of the most exciting up-and-comers in many years. …

Although drill music may have just started to pop off around a decade ago here in Chicago, it’s absolutely insane to think about how much it has impacted the entire music industry as a whole. Drill artists may have once been regarded by outsiders as aggressive, hostile music, but if you really listen to the words, it’s a story about the lives of these emcees. While there are clearly threats, violence, and antagonism throughout any drill song you tap in with that I may not condone myself, it is a part of the art and I feel like that needs to be respected in its own right. It also feels like this subgenre is one of the fastest moving and quickly transforming styles because usually you can track the evolution of a style and see how it has progressively changed, but that’s tough to do with drill considering how recently it was conceived and how much it has changed in only a handful of years. Classic drill and songs that came from the early 2010s will never go away luckily, but the new wave of the subgenre is here, and it is spearheaded by emcees like the DCG Brothers. These …

Out of the entire current generation of rap music, there aren’t many artists who are more notorious than BabyTron. While he is as Detroit as it gets, it seems like the Michigan rapper label is something that he has transcended and he is in a realm of his own. I mean, the success he has achieved in just a year or two since blowing up is mind-boggling, and while it’s not surprising when you hear exactly how versatile and intelligent his bars are, it is still something that I don’t realize until I really sit back and think about it. After receiving millions of plays and views and most recently being selected to XXL’s 2022 Freshman Class, the one thing that seems to never change is his representation of his group Shitty Boyz. He says their name during or at the end of almost every song or performance he puts on, and no matter how massive he gets, it appears as if he’ll never stop putting on for the group. It’s the squad as a whole that doesn’t get as much shine as they deserve despite these shoutouts, but the trio made up of Tron, TrDee, and StanWill is truly …

It definitely doesn’t take a lot for me to get excited about the Chicago music scene, and it definitely doesn’t take very much to get me to write about it either. That’s not because my expectations are low or because I want to promote hometown artists even if they’re not totally polished quite yet. Instead, it’s because even the most underground, local emcees are doing their thing in an unignorable fashion, and as you move up the ladder of fame and fortune, these things don’t change, the overall sound quality of the music just seems to get better thanks to their access to more professional equipment. Ever since I found out about the DCG Brothers probably over a year or two ago, I was instantaneously mesmerized by their addicting personalities, their individual aptitudes, and most of all, their out-of-the-box take on Chicago drill music. It might’ve taken longer than I had hoped for, but I finally got the chance to see them this past weekend at the Summer Smash and let me tell you, Bsavv and Shun know how to put on an all-out clinic. Their energy seems to get brought to even higher levels in front of a crowd, …

Whether you’re in the music industry yourself or you’re familiar with the ins and outs of this business, you know that not everything is fair for some artists. Signing a deal can be such a magical moment where you can finally sit back and see that all of your hard work, dedication, and workhorse mentality has officially paid off and you know you’ve made it, but things go much deeper than how they may appear. Depending on what kind of deal you sign, you may either have things made for the rest of your life, or you can find yourself in the middle of a pickle that you never even dreamed of. After taking a music business course many years ago in college, I found out that not all deals are even remotely fair, and 360 deals are definitely one of the most common types of deceiving contracts. That’s why, when Chicago’s very own 8matiklogan signed a deal to a record label, it wasn’t totally clear at the moment that it was actually a 360, and this definitely threw a wrench into his plans from the start. Instead of dwelling on this, he just kept working hard to prove himself, …

If you’re familiar with the local Chicago hip-hop scene, there are a few names that should be commonplace at this point, and even if they haven’t quite made it out to other regions or parts of the country completely, they are always welcomed with open arms here in the Windy City. They just provide so much to the culture here, because they’re pushing the limits with their sound which in turn pushes other local artists to do the same, and even though this might sound like a competition, it’s always friendly and consistently brings the best out of the entire city. When having a conversation about these talents, one artist that can never go unsaid is 8matiklogan, an emcee who has been a vital part of the local music industry for right around a decade. After years of experimentation, name changes, consistent releases, and more, I feel as if Logan is finally coming into his own and creating some of the best music of his life. In order to get 2022 started off on the right foot, Logan dropped “NEVER TRUE”, a self-produced track that samples one of his favorite house records and prepares us for this year’s new project …

Chicago never fails to impress me with the flourishing music scene that continues to run deeper than ever, but there are a few names that have stood the test of time, and I couldn’t be happier for most of these artists. One emcee goes by the name of 8MatikLogan, and even after a name change and years in the game, he seems to only be getting better. Along with this, there is never a shortage of output from the Chicagoan, constantly releasing tons of new music and videos that all prove him to be one of the best underground phenoms in the city, and his reign is only just getting started. Most recently, Logan decided to show off some of his production and mixing skills within his record “Different Route”, and this dexterity of skills truly works to his advantage. In the production, he utilizes some tear-jerking piano keys, deep, pungent 808s, and piercing percussion that comes together for a fairly simplistic foundation that Logan builds off of in a variety of ways. When he begins, he starts with a very honest, straightforward, and eye-opening delivery that is assertive and serious, backing up the words he spits with so much …