Results tagged “lupefiasco”

• With police reiterating that their investigation is still early and ongoing, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office officially ruled the death of CPS Board of Education president Michael Scott a suicide.
• The aftershocks of the beating death of Derrion Albert continue to be felt as today a federal judge gave the okay for students at Fenger High to transfer if they felt unsafe.
• An young Aurora man with Autism was found safe this morning after he went missing from his home late yesterday; he was found safe but in Crest Hill which is 20 miles from Aurora.

Halloweek is here and it's time to throw together your best sexy Daft Punk costume, prepare to arrive at work hung over at least once before the Devil's Day and immerse your ears in the city's vast Halloween-centric music offerings.

Halloween is quickly approaching and next week brings a host of musicians through the city to get your ghoulish weekend kick-started days in advance.

Less than a decade ago, Shawn Smith was an art student sitting in his dorm room at Illinois State, making one-of-a-kind plush toys that he hoped someone might buy. Simple and unpretentious, Smith's designs won over a growing number of people, and he was able to turn his hobby into a full-fledged business. Today, Shawn and his wife, Jen Brody, own and operate Shawnimals: a character design studio, located at Damen and W. Carroll, that serves as the home address for Dracskulla, Chub Grub, Lazy Flopito, and more than 450 other characters who come from more than 20 different "countries" or lands. Cat Gremlands, Foodlandia, and the Grungle Jungle are just a few of the exotic places where Shawnimals roam; the Internet and stores like Rotofugi are others.

While we patiently wait for Lupe Fiasco to release his next album -- mid-December, we hope, we hope! -- at least we're getting a semi-regular dose of him playing live around town! He continues the trend of not forgetting his home base with a concert at the Congress Theater on October 29.

Hey Champ's "Cold Dust Girl" was our own official song of last summer, and it's looking to take that title for a second year in the row. The band is releasing a newly recorded version of the song in advance of their debut on Lupe Fiasco's st & 15th Entertainment record label.

       

[View the full set]

We were excited about the prospect of a free Lupe Fiasco show in Grant Park, complete with back-flips and tongue twisting mind-bending rhymes, but organizers announced today that "in an effort to deter overlap with the Taste of Chicago music stage, the concert will move to the Chicago Theater." The upside? Lady Sovereign has been added as an opener and the sound at The Chicago Theater kicks total ass. The downside? The show is no longer free and tickets start at $20 a pop. While a free show in the park would have been nice we'll still be there front and center on June 26 at the new location.

Yeah, we admit it. We're pretty stoked Lupe's playing Grant Park for free. And here's the tune that made us first fall in love with the brainy and verbally brawny rapper.

Next door to this year's Taste of Chicago the Nike 6.0 BMX Open will be underway from June 26 - 27 in Grant Park. While the image of BMX bikers butting heads with stout suburbanites wielding oversized turkey legs is enough to set our phasers on "gleeful irony" we've learned a little piece of news that makes the event all the more awesome.

Sometimes you’ve just got to have a parade. But if you’re Columbia College’s Manifest Urban Arts Festival, you have the Spectacle Fortuna Parade of Creativity. Wishing good fortune upon seniors and graduate students before they hit the brick wall that is a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, the Spectacle Fortuna will fill the streets with hundreds of Ray Bradbury-inspired giant puppets, the punk marching band, Mucca Pazza, and ephemera created by the talented students, faculty and staff.

Chicago's rap superstars have proven time and time again that Windy City style is not an oxymoron. Kid Sister had girls rushing off to nail salons to get their "toes done up with [their] fingernails matching" and while men won't be asking their barbers for Kanye West's "frollet" anytime soon, you can't help but respect his sartorial choices. Now, in partnership with Product (Red), Lupe Fiasco will have sneaker heads buzzing with his 100 Supplementaire Converse All Stars. The white high tops—with Fiasco's thoughts printed in black type—are part of the Chuck Taylor(R) ALL STAR(R) x Africa line, which uses African canvas, mudcloth, and artists' designs to "help eliminate AIDS in Africa." - Post by Anthonia Akitunde

Touring with Lupe Fiasco seems to have stimulated the boys in Hey Champ to enter mixtape mode. They've been selling the Jet Set mix on the road in order to feed their Taco Bell Volcano Taco habit, but since they love you they're now giving it away for free.

Word is Chicago dance rockers Hey Champ are about to start rolling in the bling and are signing to Lupe Fiasco's label 1st & 15th Entertainment. Further proof that Fiasco is all set to become the area's next music mogul and talent-sniffer a la Kanye West. In the case of Hey Champ, though, we can totally see why he'd want to sign them.

We rested, rehydrated, and recovered from Day 1 in preparation for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, Mother Nature decided to have pity on the festival-goers: while clouds were still completely absent from the sky on Saturday, the temperature and humidity were considerably lower than on Friday and the breeze off Lake Michigan made the weather downright pleasant to enjoy all the great music. There's no rest for the weary and with some big decisions looming in Sunday's line-up (i.e., the Gnarls-Girl Talk-National conundrum), we dove right in to Saturday's sets.

At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother.

Love him or hate him, you can't deny Kanye West has a certain flare. Proving himself to a more prolific blogger than Steve Johnson (and more entertaining, too), Kanye has dropped a few details about an upcoming tour. He'll be touring with fellow Chicago MC Lupe Fiasco, supporting his recently released (and excellent record The Cool), along with Rihanna, and Neptunes side project N.E.R.D. Whatever you think of Mr. West, that lineup is nothing to sneeze at. We also dig that Star Wars/Max Headroom promo poster you can see over to the right.

The Cool, Lupe Fiasco's much-anticipated follow up to Food & Liquor, dropped on Tuesday to a cloud of bittersweet press. Some critics have blasted the album for its darker sound, wishing for the breezier days when Lupe's rhymes were all about meeting cute girls and skateboarding. Others question if the change in sound is a move in the right direction.

Lucky enough to get a few days off for the Chrismukkah holidays? Several Chicago area music entities have been kind enough to give you time-filling options.

Tired of Halloween yet? We've been celebrating "Christmas for Adults" since some time last week and admit that the parade of costumes is starting to turn into one long mental blur. But we ain't complaining; oh no! We love it. One tradition we were afraid we were going to miss this year was the annual Local H-led Halloween show at Double Door. When we heard last year was Scott Lucas and company's swan-song, we admit...

Each morning we're going to highlight five bands playing at Lollapalooza that we think are worth seeing. Some will be popular, some less known, but we believe they're all worth your time. Today we're keeping it short and not including an after fest show because, to be honest, we're beginning to get a little worn down. We love that all this great music is happening in our fair city, but it tends to get a...

Summer officially began yesterday, so we're gonna dedicate this edition of the Buffet to that staple of summertime in Chicago, the block party. Being born and raised in Chicago, we've certainly seen the evolution of the block party from something that brings neighbors together to, well, the monstrosities some of them are today. However, even in this day and age they're great ways to explore the city's neighborhoods, after you finish haranguing with the festivals' gatekeepers on the meaning of the word "donation." Here we go.

The day is finally here! We get to mark up the schedule, fight with our friends over who to see, and determine what time we have to wake up to make it down to Grant Park. The Lollapalooza schedule is finally out. Also, if a three-day pass seemed excessive, the single day tickets are now on sale for $80. Which headliner will make the previously unconvinced head to the festival? Will it be Daft Punk...

Like baseball and steroids, drug-dealing and hip hop always seem to be mentioned in the same breath. This time Lupe Fiasco’s business partner at 1st and 15th, the record label he started in 2000, has been sentenced to 44 years on drug charges. There have been no charges filed against Lupe who partnered with Charles Patton for his first album, Food & Liquor. Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Coughlin stated that it was rare to have...

The Onion's A.V. Club has leaked the line-up for Lollapalooza one day early, and you can read it here. If it's legit, Chicagoist is one happy camper! Many of the bands were already suspected, but a couple surprises do pop up. (Juliette and the Licks? Fuck yeah! Silverchair? Well, considering that their latest is actually good, we're even looking forward to seeing them too!) Chicago represents with acts like Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, Chin Up Chin...

There were three and a half long hours of the Grammys last night where the performances took top billing to the actual awards. Did anyone actually watch past The Police? Well, we did. Until a little after 10:00 when our eyes just wouldn’t stay open anymore. As we watch the Grammys we try to guess who might win based on which band just performed or if there is some sort of trend with the presenters...

While we felt nationally the year was a little flabby when it came to music to get us excited, we found succor in Chicago’s constantly expanding scene that continues to grow in its influence. We had a hard time winnowing down our list to just a few stand-outs since so many great albums came out locally, but the following acts kept finding their way into our iPods and our DJ sets. And for those of...

Some days when Chicagoist is busy reading the trades, it’s almost enough to put us to sleep. Thank goodness for that that intravenous caffeine drip. Lately, these stories all have a “Chicago Connection”. From working with Jay-Z and Kanye West on his debut album to garnering three Grammy nominations, Lupe Fiasco has had some dreams come true. He’s decided to take Oprah’s advice and dream even bigger for what comes next. His high hopes include...

We know there’ll be a resounding chorus of “Who cares?” in the comments on this post, but we’d be remiss in our music coverage if we didn’t acknowledge those Chicagoans who pulled down Grammy award nominations this week. Continuing to build hope for the future of hip-hop, West Side hip-hopper Lupe Fiasco picked up three nominations (best rap solo performance, album and song). Lupe celebrated the nomination by signing 256 new endorsement deals, including one...