Gwapo Chapo and Looney Babie
Alright, there may be some hyperbole in that headline. I can’t pretend to have a street-level view of Chicago’s rap scene, and I would never dispute that there’s incredible music coming out of that city every week. Chicago’s always had a remarkable rap scene and likely always will. But I can say that, at least from a distance, Chicago drill—the city’s hard-as-fuck, Midwesternified answer to trap that was the city’s signature export for a time—has lost much of its steam over the last half decade, as the city’s rappers have aged, mellowed or moved onto other muses.
Milwaukee, on the other hand, is in the middle of a street rap resurgence. For all the attention the more left-field corners of the city’s hip-hop scene attracts, some of the most exciting music coming out of the city right now is no-frills, pulse-quickening rap, and it’s pouring out of the North Side at an unprecedented clip. Most of these artists don’t explicitly identify as drill, but their music scratches the same primal itch as Chicago’s heyday drill used to, while bringing a wily, animated energy to the music that’s unmistakably their own. They’ve taken a sound that was once quintessentially Chicago and created something thrillingly new out of it.
Below we’ve compiled a playlist of some of Milwaukee’s hardest street tracks from the last six months or so (a few date back about a year, but many are just a few weeks or even a few days old). If this is your first exposure to the rising stars, hidden talent and utter randos who are completely redefining Milwaukee rap, then enjoy, because you’re in for a treat. These guys don’t hold back.
Looney Babie and Gwapo Chapo – “All Racks”
Velle Vell – “Bounce Out”
Solowke – “I Ain’t Gon Front My Shit”
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