*DISCLAIMER*: This blog contains sensitive topics, if this makes you uncomfortable please refrain from reading past the second picture
A little bias sure, but when you take a step back to look at where the musical influence originated from, you can't ignore "OutWest". People feel very strongly about where they come from within the city and stark differences between each area of the city helps to perpetuate that notion. To understand how people unofficially classify the city we have to look at the designated community areas (neighborhoods) and how Chicago uniquely classifies which streets line out where you are in the city of 2,600,000 residents.
This is one of the best visual maps I could find that helps to understand the clumping of neighborhoods as the city does very little to label the grouping of communities. Usually in the traditional view the city is split into 3, being the North, South, and West sides which are all divided by the river. This helps to generalize where you are referring to as not everyone knows where all 77 neighborhoods are located. When viewing the city in terms of musical influence the West Side has never been front and center, but consistently produces a wide range of vocal talent from the least publicized side of the city.
Taking a closer look between the streets we can find artists like Twista, Lucki, Lud Foe, and VonOff1700 as of recently representing the communities they grew up in. Twisa represented the Garfield Park communities heavily throughout the 90s and 2000s after gaining notoriety from his 2004 album "Kamikaze" produced by Kanye West. Twista has the first certified platinum & 2x platinum rap album created by a West Side artist. This influence echoed hard throughout the community, as in the coming years everyone and their sister wanted to be a famous rap artist just like Twista. Being able to relate to an artist is one thing, but knowing them personally skyrockets your interest exponentially. Going to OPRFHS located just blocks west of city limits, I was immersed in the development of the genre over the years, befriending industry names and understanding differences between subgenres.
I personally knew 2 artists during my time at school and befriended one before his passing in 2023. Swagg2100, real name CJ was a rapper during the years of 2021-2023 where he released numerous singles, EP's, and albums before he overdosed on pressed percocet pills on august 29th 2023. I considered CJ a personal friend from 2020 and on, and I enjoyed his company and music in the time we knew each other. He still has a impressive listening on Spotify given the lack of releases, and has songs garnering over 200,000 plays over multiple platforms. Swagg left behind a baby girl, who is in good care with her birth mother in his home neighborhood of North Lawndale. In conclusion, not only am I a fan of the genre, but my personal life has found its way into the industry and I feel the need to raise awareness of the unrecognized artists representing for their underrepresented community.
"Loyalty over love they only love you when you die" - Swagg2100
-DB
I think it's very interesting that you're delving deeper into the musical history of the city you grew up in. I'm not a personal fan of the genre of rap, but I can appreciate the poetry of the lyrics. Knowing more about the places these songs originated from deepens the appreciation for the craft.
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