In July, Sen Morimoto quit his job as a barback at Big Star with no plans to look for other work—the 24-year-old singer, rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist had decided to try supporting himself as a musician. Since moving to Chicago in 2014, he’d been content to hold down restaurant jobs and take opportunities to work on his music—an adventurous blend of hip-hop, jazz, prog rock, and pop—wherever he could find them. He was ambivalent about promoting his songs, and he preferred to work alone: he played every note himself, recorded every track himself, and released all his music himself.

His parents weren’t sure what to make of it. “They’re like, ‘You make money doing this?’” Morimoto says. “I was like, ‘No, this one time I do—this is the only one so far.’ My dad got on the phone and was like, ‘So, like, can I retire?’ I was like, ‘No, absolutely not.’”

Though Morimoto chose to keep some distance from 88 Rising, he’s become more involved with Sooper: a couple months ago, he signed a contract to become a co-owner. “I felt honored, honestly,” Morimoto says. “I never thought I would run a record label.”

88 Degrees & Rising Tour: Rich Brian, Joji, Keith Ape, the Higher Brothers, Niki, Kohh, August 08, Sen Morimoto, KrezSun 10/14, 6 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $49.50, all-ages

Morimoto’s parents enrolled him in the Amherst Japanese Language School, but he struggled to keep up with other students his age. “For the first few years, they all had to speak English to teach me anything,” he says. He proved a quicker learner when it came to music. He picked up the saxophone when he was ten, and a couple years later he began private classes with Charles Neville of the Neville Brothers—every Saturday after Japanese, Morimoto and his friend Kai Matsuda would travel to nearby Huntington to take lessons in a yurt outside Neville’s house.

Morimoto never went to college. He moved to Chicago at 20, at the suggestion of his girlfriend at the time—she was enrolled at the School of the Art Institute. He arrived in January 2014, in the middle of a polar vortex, and shared a Wicker Park loft with strangers.

“I didn’t have anyone to collaborate with, really,” he says. “I think that’s why I don’t like a lot of it now. I think feedback is a really important part of editing an album.” Transatlantic indie label Tip Top Recordings rereleased the entire album on vinyl and cassette in 2016, but Morimoto only has half its 12 songs up on Bandcamp.