Design Final

July 2019 Vol. 1 $3.99

noname Valee

sells out Chicago’s Riviera is a man of many talents

grapetooth
talks upcoming album

Co Featured
nt Artist of
en the week:
ts
VALEE
Cover photo by Sydney Owens Pg 20

8 Photo by Layton Photo courtesy
Guyton/Ellise Shafer of Fader

Talk of
the “L”:

30 Chicago artists,

including
Grapetooth,
discuss
upcoming
summer
concert series
in Grant Park

The cadence

of our lives

A letter from your editor

Photo by Alix Reville

A s a self-identified musician, who only has enough to skill and talent to play in a
room alone, I’ve always had the upmost respect for those who can play instruments
well and perform for a live audience. It takes a special kind of person to write a
lyric or rythym that moves the listener in ways that he or she cannot describe.
Ultimately, it is a field that isn’t appreciated enough or in the right ways and is slowly being
destroyed by streaming services and artist managers everywhere.

Everyone has their favorite genres, artists, and songs. It can be difficult to seek out new
music, take risks, and appreciate something that is different than what you’re used to. The Ca-
dence is here to make that task a little easier for music lovers in Chicago, like myself. We also
try to focus our efforts on smaller, up-and-coming artists who may not be getting the atten-
tion from other media outlets that they deserve. We contribute to the community by keeping
events, artists, and even advertisements hyper-local. By reading this magazine, you’re not only
helping yourself but your community as well.


Sydney Owens
Editor-in-Chief

9

BottomLounge

Concerts | Restaurant | Patio | Rentals

1375 W. Lake | Chicago, IL

Pg 12

Chi-City Reviews:

12 Noname takes the stage with

a live band at every show

38 Tasha gives the crowd an

emotional performance

50 R&B duo Drama leave the

audience chanting ‘encore’

Photo courtesy of Clash Music Pg 44

Up-And-Coming: 11

44 What to expect at

Pitchfork Fest this July,
including suprise guests,
vendors, VIP tickets, and
more

56 Why crowds and

headliners make
Lollapalooza not worth
the money this year

60 Chicago music events you

haven’t heard about yet
but need to get tickets for

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

CHI CITY REVIEWS

Noname takes the stage on
June 29, 2019 in front of a
sold-out venue.
Photo by Mark Horton,
Getty Images

12

performs

NNonameat Riviera
The Chicago slam
poetry-style rapper
puts on a unique
live performance
By Sydney Owens
Lorem Ipsum is simply
dummy text of the printing
and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been
the industry’s standard dummy
text ever since the 1500s, when an
unknown printer took a galley of
type and scrambled it to make a
type specimen book. It has survived
not only five centuries, but also the
leap into electronic typesetting,
remaining essentially unchanged.
It was popularised in the 1960s
with the release of Letraset sheets
containing Lorem Ipsum passages,
and more recently with desktop
publishing software like Aldus
PageMaker including versions of
Lorem Ipsum.
Contrary to popular belief,
Lorem Ipsum is not simply ran-
dom text. It has roots in a piece of
classical Latin literature from 45

CONT. ON P16

13

VAEEL LEE AVE VELAE
The Chicago rapper
20 who’s a jack of all trades

By Joe Coscarelli

Earlier this year, on the set of
his first major music video, the
rapper Valee was hemming his
own clothes.
The shoot for “Miami,” featur-
ing the hip-hop godfather Pusha
T, who doubles as the president of
Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, was
meant to announce Valee, a 29-year-
old from Chicago, as the latest
addition to the tastemaking label.
But instead of acting like a newly
minted star, leaning into a world of
stylists and on-demand everything,
he brought a sewing machine from
home.

“I put stuff together,” Valee said
with a shrug during a recent trip
to New York. It was an understate-
ment, but also an all-purpose job
description, one that hinted at the

CONT. ON P24

FEATURED ARTIST

Valee, who started recording in 2015, is fi-
nally starting to gain attention in the media
after being signed to Kanye West’s GOOD
Music label.
Photo by Lyndon French, Rolling Stone

21

Valee works on his model
cars in his spare time.
Photo by Last FM

CONT. FROM P20 ponds, too. He customizes fast cars in hip-hop, and a new generation
— full-size and remote control — of stars have come to prominence
motivations of a man who is less a and cooks. He’s tattooed others, as via extracurricular antics (and,
born rapper than a detail-obsessed well as his own arms and legs. sometimes, heinous crimes), Valee
D.I.Y. aesthete, always looking for is a low-key anomaly. He has only
a fresh creative angle. “I talk to a lot of rappers and a perfunctory social media pres-
people in the industry,” said An- ence, no scandals or performative
While honing his music, which drew Barber, Valee’s manager and beefs to his name and, as a bit of
he often self-produces and re- an influential fixture in Chicago a loner, comes unaffiliated with
cords at home, Valee has turned rap music. “Nobody else has ever any existing movements or mi-
odd hobbies into odd jobs, toeing offered to come build a bar in my crogenres. At nearly 30, with two
the line between eccentric and house.” children and three dogs (Furrari,
modern-day Renaissance man. Ravioli and Sophia), he is basical-
He does carpentry, construction Valee, obviously, is not your ly ancient among those to spawn
and electrical work, and builds koi typical rapper. from YouTube and SoundCloud.

24 At a time when lines have “All these people that go ex-
blurred between viral jester and
professional musician, especially

tremely viral, I can’t name you one the “GOOD Job, You Found Me” I just felt proud
damn song they’ve made,” Valee EP, was released in March and
said, in reference to his disruptive executive produced by Mr. West, “of being able to
contemporaries like 6ix9ine and who before his recent theatrics,
XXXTentacion. “You just know brought Valee into the G.O.O.D. tell my mom that
them through being silly.” fold. ’Ye reached out.
He saw that I built
“I’m real easygoing,” he added. “I just felt proud of being able on my own with a
“I don’t look at the view counts, I to tell my mom that ’Ye reached
don’t look at the comments — it’s out,” Valee said, adding, “He saw ”small team.
a distraction. I would just rather that I built on my own with a - -Valee
be busy waiting on the next beat, small team.”
so I can say something better than worthy of a proper debut album.
I just said.” In keeping with the times, Valee “I have probably 250 songs in
has continued to release a steady the chest,” he said, “but I want to
That head-down, music-first stream of new songs and dis- increase the quality.”
work ethic has paid off gradually. tinct, minimalist music videos as
Valee’s first commercial project, he builds toward a body of work Valee had been quietly releas-
ing music online for a few years,
developing a taste for murky,
mid-tempo beats with blown-out
bass, before he found a plugged-
in booster in Mr. Barber early last
year. The proprietor of the blog
Fake Shore Drive, an early mega-
phone for breakout Chicago acts
for the last decade, Mr. Barber was
initially struck by Valee’s video for
“Shell,” which, at one minute and
49 seconds, said it all.

“He had a fully formed thing,”
Mr. Barber said. “It wasn’t some-
thing that you hear in this era, but
it sounded current. And he just
looked cool as hell.”

And while Chicago’s musical
reputation has bifurcated into
the hyperaggressive drill sound
popularized by Chief Keef and
G Herbo or the theatrical posi-
tivity of Chance the Rapper and
his acolytes, Valee was neither.

CONT. ON P27

25

withTALKOFTHE‘L’

Clay Frankel (left) and Chirs Bailoni (right) make up Chicago-based duo Grapetooth.
Photo courtesy of “grapetoothband” Instagram.

30

grapetooth
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi
accumsan, odio id placerat blandit, leo libero fringilla velit, non
dictum leo ligula sit amet enim. Proin molestie ullamcorper dui,
et vulputate nulla dapibus id. Nam vehicula suscipit felis, nec
tempor nibh pretium ac. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
torquent.

Q: HOW DID IT FEEL TO BE
INVITED TO THE GRANT PARK
SUMMER CONCERT SERIES?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi
accumsan, odio id placerat blandit, leo libero fringilla velit, non
dictum leo ligula sit amet enim. Proin molestie ullamcorper dui,

et vulputate nulla dapibus id. Nam vehicula suscipit felis, nec

Atempor nibh pretium ac. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
torquent.
CONT. ON P33
31