Over the past six years, the formula behind the Red Bull Big Tune producer battle hasn’t been messed with much—two beat makers still face off in multiple rounds to see who has the more crowd-pleasing track. And judging by the 2010 Red Bull Big Tune Finals at Chicago’s Metro, hip-hop heads across the country are still dedicated to showing up and making noise for their favorite beat.
Let’s just get this out of the way: hip-hop shows, more than any other genre, regularly feature an absurd amount of waiting before the headliner you went to see finally hits the stage—often after midnight. Some of the opening acts or DJs you see beforehand might be good and you may even be hyped to have been introduced to them, but when it takes four hours before the main act steps on stage, shit can get old. With this in mind, Black Milk’s last minute, Red Bull Big Tune pre-show in Chicago at Reggie’s Rock Club was as close to ideal as you can get.
The amount of options on Halloween weekend this year for live music in Chicago was dumbfounding yet word of the Magical Properties Tour stopping by the Double Door was hard to pass up. While The Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus have both made repeat appearances individually in Chicago during 2010, seeing the two on the same bill outside of L.A. is a rarity—one only heightened by the addition of 12th Planet and Teebs to this ridiculous bill of beatsmiths.
“I wanna be relatable to the average person instead of trying to be the superhero rapper with a cape,” says up-and-coming rhymer Moe Green from his home in Vallejo, California.
Green (a.k.a. Gregory Carter) admits that his raps used to be all about the get-money lifestyle, but his perspective now as a twenty-something has noticeably broadened. On his recently released debut, Rocky Mavia: Non Title Match, this MC raps precisely about the random facets of his life not so much as a storyteller but as a line-for-line lyrical technician.