Late in 2017, rapper Davis Blackwell had hit a creative block. Though he’d just earned a BFA in creative writing from Columbia College, even working for the school’s literary magazine, Hair Trigger (which also published some of his pieces), he’d all but stopped writing. “Around that time, I was really disillusioned with my prose shit,” he says.
Why? Records showcase featuring Malci, Davis, Joshua Virtue, and Ruby Watson Sun 6/30, 8 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10, 21+
“I’ve followed Malci for years,” Virtue says. “Malci was one of the people who inspired me to make hip-hop on my own and really start circulating my work. He’s just always putting shit out and just plays hella hella hella hella shows.” Atkinson has been playing out longer than anyone else in the collective, and after he dropped Papaya! in May, it got more buzz than any other Why? release—this month, Noisey named it one of “33 Essential Albums You Probably Missed So Far in 2019.”
In August 2015, Atkinson self-released his debut, PM, which introduced his idiosyncratic style: off-center beats with weird feels, noisy samples that sound like they could burst apart, scattershot flows that zigzag through the space of the song, and lyrics overstuffed with introspection. He took inspiration from Milo and Open Mike Eagle, but he soon understood that he had uncommon predilections. “I started to realize there ain’t too many weird-ass rappers in Chicago doing this weird poetry or alternate type of rapping,” he says.
Virtue, Fielder, and a few other friends—including vocalist and producer Jack Clements—decided to try it themselves. “We made a super shitty rap song,” Virtue says. “And we continued making super shitty rap songs for years together.”
Virtue and Clements visited the Wilco loft that fall. “When we get to the loft, Jeff’s like, ‘Do you guys have a band?’” Clements says. “So that put it in my head, like, we should get a band and we should take this seriously.” Palace of Auburn Hills had been a studio-only project, but the pair began to put together a live band—an experimental jazz and hip-hop group called Not Lovely. Meanwhile, Virtue began producing and recording solo tracks, accumulating several full-lengths worth of material, though he kept most of it to himself.
