Author: Christopher Good

Interviews | Music | Radio

Know His Roots

Matt Muse on his new project, Nappy Talk

by 2 months ago

Courtesy Matt Muse

When I meet Matt Muse on a bright August morning, the South Side-raised rapper is on top of his game. The night before our interview at WHPK 88.5 FM’s broadcast station in Hyde Park, he’d doubled as featured artist and host for Young Chicago Authors’ WordPlay, the city’s longest-running open mic. Earlier in the summer, he’d performed at Taste of Chicago and Fox 32’s Good Morning Chicago, and in the days to come, he’d head out to New York City for a sold-out performance with Sofar Sounds and to celebrate his twenty-sixth birthday.

Best of the South Side 2018 | Washington Park | Woodlawn

Best of Washington Park & Woodlawn

by 2 months ago

Stateville Prisoners' Mural (Courtesy of Prison and Neighborhood Arts)

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Bishop Dwayne R. Mason is the pastor of Saint Martin’s Church of Christ at 5648 S. State St. in Washington Park. He also works as a licensed funeral director.

Interviews | Music | Radio

Know Me More

For artist-abolitionist Ric Wilson, Black art need not be bad or sad

by and 6 months ago

Olivia Obineme

Before you heard Ric Wilson, you might have retweeted him. Last year, the twenty-two-year-old rapper, artist, and prison abolitionist posted a mash-up of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and Migos’s “Bad and Boujee,” set to footage from an old Soul Train performance. The result broke 2.8 million views on Twitter.

Arts Issue 2018 | Interviews | Music

State of Nature

Mother Nature is raising “the collective conscience of damn-near the world through hip-hop”

by 8 months ago

Kiran Misra

As the old cliché goes, artists must “find their voices.” The rap duo Mother Nature, on the other hand, already know what they want to say. The two will waste no time telling you what they stand for: they’re a “badass group of MCs, coming to conquer the world through Black girl genius.”

Interview Issue 2017 | Interviews | Music

Out of Order

From child DJ to engineer to world tour artist, Jana Rush works backwards

by 1 year ago

Willis Glasspiegel

From the day she got her first ghettoblaster while growing up in Chatham, Jana Rush—aka JARu—has always been connected to Chicago music. Her ascent into the scene reads like folklore: at ten years, she called Kennedy-King’s WKKC 89.3 FM to schedule an audition. “Once they were done laughing,” Rush tells me, the DJs showed her the ropes, and juke icon Gant-Man took her under his wing. By 1996, Jana had put out a single and a split 12” with DJ Deeon on the legendary house label Dance Mania, where she was billed as “The Youngest Female DJ.”

Music

Deeon Does Deeon

Talking mixtapes, Daft Punk, and Dance Mania with a ghetto house don

by 1 year ago 2 Comments

Christopher Good

There’s something unusual about DJ Deeon’s Friday night set at Pilsen’s Fiesta del Sol: it’s clean. Tonight, his stage is within earshot of neon-lit carnival rides and family friendly attractions, so the raunchiest matter has been scrubbed out, presumably for the children’s sake. But as the bobbing and juking of the crowd suggests, even some conveniently placed backspins can’t dampen a cut like “Let me Bang.”

Far Southeast Side | Nature

Ramping Up at Big Marsh

A Southeast Side slag field reborn

by 1 year ago

Christopher Good

When you reduce 11599 S. Stony Island to its individual components, it’s simple enough: wood, mulch, concrete, clods of dirt. But the Bike Park at Big Marsh, like any good bike park, is more than the sum of its parts. Since its opening last November, the park’s stairs, ramps, curves, and jumps have become a two-wheeled proving ground—and the only space of its kind on Chicago’s South Side.