Hip-Hop Search – Soundboard
Chance the Rapper, Sir Michael Rocks
Sat., May 25, 7 p.m. and Sun., May 26, 7 p.m.Hip-Hop
When the last book in the Harry Potter series came out in summer 2007, a friend started habitually pointing out people reading it in public, and it seemed like we couldn’t get on a train without seeing one or two. Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing the same thing for Acid Rap, the new second mixtape from 20-year-old Chatham MC Chancelor Bennett, aka Chance the Rapper—I’ve heard it leaking out of strangers’ headphones on the streets and on the el so often that I’m beginning to believe that Chance is as ubiquitous as Harry. It’s easy to get sucked into Acid Rap and hard to stop playing it once you’re hooked—it’s a well-polished mixtape that feels like a proper album, and it appeals to hip-hop heads and rap philistines alike with its mix of mature introspection and drug-fueled party anthems. There are a lot of great tracks on Acid Rap, but “Chain Smoker” may best demonstrate Chance’s crossover potential. Its smooth, poppy instrumental track combines a wistfully soulful synth melody, processed and edited vocal samples, and a rattling dance beat, which together have a loose, open-ended feel that allows him to switch smoothly between nasal rapping and sweet singing; it’s so life-affirming that even his lyrics, which address fears about his mortality, sound irrepressible. Sometimes when these songs get stuck in my head, I catch myself mimicking Chance’s high-energy dancing—and I don’t care who sees me. —Leor Galil Sir Michael Rocks opens.
773-549-0203Gunplay, Save Money, Tink G, Lil Herb & Lil Bibby
Thu., May 30, 8 p.m.Hip-Hop
Every good rap crew needs its “rampant id” character, the one who’ll jump in on an otherwise sedate track or show and gleefully tear everything up—and do so with enough charm that you’re happy to forgive the mess. In Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group that role is capably filled by Richard Morales Jr., the tatted-up, dreadlocked blast of mayhem better known as Gunplay, aka the Human Bath Salt. As a rapper he projects the kind of anarchic energy you might recognize from the works of ODB and Mystikal—his breakout track, “Jump Out,” is basically a bunch of yelling over a dense collage of gunshots. His skills as a rapper are often overshadowed by off-mike antics, such as his series of viral videos, his frequent house arrests, and his unabashed enthusiasm for doing cocaine. Morales’s new single, “Bible on the Dash,” brings the mania down a notch and gives him an opportunity to show off a subtler side. —Miles Raymer Save Money, Tink G, and Lil Herb & Lil Bibby open.
$2.68
