- The Talent Fest cover
A couple weeks ago Playboy became the latest national media outlet to cover Chicago hip-hop with an in-depth story, though like the recent “docs” from World Star and Noisey the feature is mostly focused on the drill scene. Fortunately writer Ethan Brown does take a moment to point out that this city’s rap scene isn’t just Chief Keef and his circle:
I don’t remember exactly, except I just really loved hip-hop. When I went down there, I’m like, “This is one of the only major cities that really isn’t represented in hip-hop.” I think that time Common Sense was just starting to get a national buzz—or, Common Sense back then. Really, there wasn’t a whole lot going on from Chicago. So I thought, “Wow, there’s so much good music here that people need to hear.” So that’s where the idea came from.
With that in mind, how did you approach the acts that ended up on Talent Fest? How did you figure out who you wanted in there? What was the process of putting this whole thing together?
Part of that was probably my own insecurity; being a white guy trying to understand hip-hop music, what was predominantly black music and being the only white guy in the club at that time. You know, of where my place is, how am I a part of this?
How long did it take you to basically compile the 12 songs that appear on Talent Fest?
