Photo Credit: Jacob Rink
Wave Chapelle
Milwaukee native Wave Chapelle has seen his share of substantial moments as an artist. Heartfelt records are often the byproduct of plenty of life experiences, and his new album, Waves Don’t Die, has plenty of material to pull from. It also showcases an artist that is building towards a new future, rather than one that is focusing on the past. He confidently raps that he was “in my bag, like I found it, I never lost it” within the opening 30 seconds of the album, and that sets the tone for the tracks that follow.
Once heralded as a promising new act on an imprint under Epic Record and Sony Entertainment, Chapelle had quickly risen to regional stardom. When that relationship ultimately dissolved, he was forced to regroup, and does so effectively on this album. Stories of that perseverance pop up on tracks like “Rainy Daze,” where Chapelle talks about keeping his head on straight and focusing on getting to something larger by any means necessary. There’s no wound-licking at this point, and Chapelle credits the team he found after relocating to Atlanta for truly getting back into his groove.
“I felt like I had been working on a bunch of music independently” said Chapelle. “Then once I locked in with my engineer Dacota (Fresilli) and his crew, it was the first time I really felt like I had a solid team again around me. I was able to put a lot of effort into reinventing myself, which is why the project is called Waves Don’t Die.”
While confident swagger is ever-present on Waves Don’t Die, there’s an appreciation for Chapelle’s Milwaukee roots that pops up sporadically throughout the album as well. While lyrical odes to the city are a little less commonplace, the remix to recent single “Mobbin’” rounds out the album, complete with appearances from Madison rapper Ted Park, as well as high school classmate and fellow Milwaukee standout IshDARR. Uniting the Wisconsin trio of acts is a part of the self-released project that Chapelle can take pride in.
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“It’s like a full circle moment for me. IshDARR and I went to Messmer High School together” said Chapelle. “We’ve always had a good relationship. Ted Park and I did a whole tour together before. We were thinking we needed a remix. I shot the track over to Ish, and then Ted. We didn’t tell them we were going to put it together, we were just going to see if it worked. It ended up being something super dope, not only for the city of Milwaukee but the state of Wisconsin to get behind.”
You can check out Waves Don’t Die right now on all major streaming platforms.
