Basking in the glow of the spotlight at Chicago’s Metro, longtime local rapper Juice steps to the mic, his eyes gleaming. Thus far his set, the closing performance of the 4th annual Chicago Rocks hip-hop showcase, has lacked much of the energy for which he’s been renowned. But now it looks like the man’s got something to say. “Fuck Rhymefest”, he declares, before launching into a fierce set of songs ripping the fellow rapper, using Fest’s beats and words against him.
Most of the crowd knows the reason for this biting tribute; the night before at the Abbey Pub, Rhymefest challenged the crowd with his own controversial statement: “Fuck Juice, I’m the freestyle king”. Though the flashy Fest has already had more commercial success than Juice may ever achieve outside the city limits (his major label debut, Blue Collar, was released in July), it was probably an unwise move to challenge the Scribble Jam champion. The result was the unanimous highlight of the two night event, which featured over 20 acts from all parts of the city.
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It’s fitting that an event bent on demonstrating intra-city collaboration and unity should be overshadowed by a dispute over rapping superiority. While it’s made strides in recent years, the Chicago hip-hop scene has long lagged behind that of other major cities in large part due to its fractious nature. Many artists appear more interested in bringing others down and complaining, instead of working together toward a common goal. Chicago Rocks, the brainchild of local hip-hop moguls Molemen (Panik, PNS and Memo), is probably the most powerful example of how efforts are being made to change that perception around the city. With Chicago becoming an increasingly visible spot on the musical map, local artists are sensing the importance of seizing the opportunity. But can they work past their differences to make Chicago the hip-hop destination it should be?
“When I look at the hip-hop scene, it’s just a reflection of the city; it’s very segregated,” says Panik, the Molemen’s respected leader. “Our goal with [Chicago Rocks] was just to have different people network that haven’t networked. Old-school cats and new-school cats… we kinda wanted to do everything.”
“It’s a chance for the kids to see everybody at one time,” says local MC and radio host Pugslee Atomz. “They might not know who these different people are individually, but that night they get to get plugged in… it just makes you want to check out more stuff in the city.”
“Please don’t call us Haterville”
— Longshot and Pugslee Atomz, “Haterville”
If Chicago Rocks is a gateway drug to local hip-hop, then Ang 13 might be the scene’s most fervent D.A.R.E. officer. At 32, the MC (whose moniker is really just Angie with the “I” and “E” flipped around) has seen what Chicago has to offer, and has no reservations about expressing her displeasure. “Hip-hop has been in existence in Chicago since probably the mid-’80s. At this point, you got cats comin’ into the game that think they know what hip-hop is, but they still don’t recognize the struggle and the path that it took to get here.”
Struggle is something that many Chicago artists know a lot about, and it’s not just about working hard to get to a certain point it’s also about pushing others to support the scene. “We really lack work ethic here,” says Ang. “I’m guilty of that, too. When I did finally start to get on point with it, I noticed that other people really weren’t.”
“I think some people don’t understand what working hard means,” says Pugslee. “They say to themselves, I worked on Saturday, I did a show… like that one day made up for the other six days. Every day, you gotta put forth that effort. Some positive motion has to happen. Otherwise, you just got little sparks happening, but no fire.”
Pugslee’s been doing his part to ensure the embers don’t die out completely. The veteran MC, a founding member of the South Side Nacrobats crew, seems to be present at every important hip-hop event in the city. His recent compilation, Pugslee Atomz presents CTA Radio Chi City Hip Hop, named after the show he hosts on local station WHPK (a necessary stop for any aspiring Chicago artist), features all homegrown talent in an effort to further collaboration and citywide support.
This follows in the footsteps of what the Molemen have been doing for years with their Chicago-themed mixtapes (including the recent Chicago City Limits Vol. 2) and production for a wide range of local artists. “Ever since we got into the scene, we’ve been a big advocate of networking and politicking with other people,” says Panik. “As time has gone by, we’ve become more and more a part of it. Now I feel Molemen are responsible for pushing that envelope, to have people work together more.”
One of the major ways they’ve done that is through Chicago Rocks. “The first one was cool, the second one was getting better and better, and it just started picking up,” recalls Panik. Now in its fourth year, “it’s becoming a little bit more of an all-city event. We try to pick some people that haven’t been heard as much, and we might wanna bring them to the spotlight. Now we pick the freshest acts out there, known or unknown, who we haven’t had there that should be on there.”
For all its unifying features, however, the event often highlights the problems within this culture. “When things like Chicago Rocks come up,” says Ang, “you give people the flyer and they see all these faces, and they think they should be on there. They say ‘what’s he doin on there, he just came out, I’ve been doing this for years!’ I’m like, ‘you know what the problem is, what are you gonna do about it?’ and then they shut down.
“Every day I keep asking myself, why do you still want to be involved with these people? Had I not been doing it since I was so young, I wouldn’t be doing it. I don’t encourage anybody to be getting into hip-hop right now. If you really wanna do it then go ahead and do it, but really, for Chicago, it’s not worth it.”
“MC’in from Chi, just bein’ from Chi, and if you act like you don’t know then you’ll be fleein’ from Chi…”
— E.C. Illa & Rubberroom, “Taste of Chicago”
“I’ve thought about [leaving Chicago] plenty of times,” says Panik. “It’s kinda like being mad at your family or something like that. You get mad at your family but you realize you’re family, so it’s like we’re back together. I was born and raised in Chicago and it’s hard to leave it.”
Adds Pugslee, “No one should be staying at home everyday. You should be out connecting with other folks. I try to get out of the city at least once a month, because you gotta spread it. I talk to a lot of the bigger artists here, and that’s what got it moving.”
Some of those “bigger artists” include Common and Kanye West, both of whom no longer spend much time in Chicago. “If someone leaves and they do well, I’m not gonna hold it against them,” says Panik. “Everyone has their own path. I’m gonna stick around. Now it’s come to a part when Chicago’s trendy, for MTV, for major labels, for major publications. This is a good time to be from Chicago, so why leave now? All that hard work is gonna pay off.”
If things are going to happen for Chicago, now is the time. Local artists are riding high atop the industry, and huge musical events like Lollapalooza are putting Chicago at the center of the music universe this summer. As much as the outside world is paying attention to Chicago (and internationally, this kind of attention is nothing new – according to Panik, people in Europe and Australia have been aware of the scene here since the early days), it’s going to be just as important that the city continues to build from within and make people notice.
According to Pugslee, the city is ready for whatever comes. “They (national labels) are not gonna miss out on money; if Lupe Fiasco kills it when his record comes out, and Rhymefest kills it when his record comes out, and on the independent side when Molemen’s doing their thing and All Natural’s doing their thing and Juice with Conglomerate’s doing his thing, like, why wouldn’t they want our pennies? We gotta dig in, and try to get some of that paper.”
Obviously, it’s not going to be easy. But those who have been here since the beginning are accustomed to the hard road, and seem willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. “You really can’t look for someone to come get you, you gotta go get it,” says Ang 13. “If you want it bad enough, nothing is gonna stop you from getting it. It’s frustrating, it’s time-consuming, it’s sickening… and I love to do it every single day.”
“We do it like that for those who wanna step to this/Swing a flow like a fist ’cause Chi Town don’t miss”
— Juice, “We Do It Like That”
As his set nears its conclusion, Juice stops the show one more time. “I have a special guest,” he announces to the Chicago Rocks crowd. “Where’s my man Marvo?” Out comes a rapper who looks no more than 16 (turns out he’s 20), swathed in gold chains, a baseball cap perched on his head. He may be small, but he commands the stage with his raps about the city he grew up in and will fiercely protect. What’s more powerful than his words, however, is the scene that surrounds him. Gathered around the stage, leaning on speakers, walls, or just each other, are many of the performers from the two nights of Chicago Rocks. As Marvo tells everyone to “put your C’s up”, cupping his hand in a gesture symbolizing Chicago, the hands of all of them go up. Ang 13 pumps her fist from the corner, Pugslee Atomz, Q.U.E. Billah, Rhyme Scheme and others stop hawking their wares in the crowd for a moment and respond. Despite all the problems that occur here, it takes a kid to help everybody remember that they’re all from the same place.
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