The entire hip hop world has their eyes on Atlanta's hip hop scene right now, with what most would argue to be the richest hip hop scene in the country. I will acknowledge that Atlanta has some great young hip hop acts as embodied by Raury, Daye Jack and iLoveMakonnen, but I believe that Chicago has as good, if not, a better hip hop scene; it is just overlooked. My personal belief in the reasoning why Chicago is overlooked as a city bustling with young, talented rappers is because the rap is not as ignorant as, say, a Rich Homie Quan.
Take for example Saba, one of the brightest emerging rappers from Chicago, his most recent track "Next Door" featuring fellow West side native Lucki Eck$. On "Next Door," the 20 year-old rapper/producer lays out his family situation for the entire world to hear. Saba raps on his mother's bouts with alcohol (a substance that Saba refrains from), his father leaving him, his brothers, and his mother early on in his life, and his own personal struggle with the environment he was reared in. When listening to "Next Door," it's hard not to feel for the "Burn Out" rapper and everybody else who calls the West side of Chicago their home. It is a region encompassed by conflict and struggle and to hear a young man rap about it really brings to light that there are problems in the city of Chicago and the greater United States that need to be addressed. Saba is an outlier. For those of you who may not know, the Pivot Gang artist was able to get a 3.9 and graduate from high school at the mere age of 16; an incredible feat for someone from the West side. This is the hip hop music people should be listening to and supporting because it is positive, it is personal, and it MATTERS.
Listen to "Next Door" below and support good music because music is a direct reflection of a generation's culture and values. With that said, what does it say about our generation’s values when we’re yelling "I'm in love with the coco?" You decide.
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