
"When you're put in certain situations, you ain't got no choice but to make a way for yourself," he said. A lot of people have been in my shoes and can relate." "I used to park in this alley down on the east side to go to sleep. "I came from nothing," Chicken P told the Journal Sentinel. It's what these rappers are saying, and what they stand for, that makes them so popular. … And rap is really melodic right now, so there's a pocket for melodic street music." Rappers' Milwaukee messageīut it's not just the sound these Milwaukee rappers specialize in that's turning heads - a spin-off of Detroit's distorted, bass-slapping style, sprinkled with some Atlanta trap bounce and matched to loose, sing-song, often filtered vocals.

Not only will kids from the hood mess with that, but some of the suburban kids are interested in that music. "That dirty, unfiltered sound - there's an audience for that. "Now it's gone back to the streets, almost like how rock had a grunge era," Promise suggested. "Back in the day, everybody wanted a club hit or a radio smash single," said Promise, who hosted "Heat on the Street," a Saturday night local hip-hop showcase on WKKV-FM (100.7), for three years. Whenever an official music video is released - Chicken P is hoping to get a noted name to do a feature - expect the numbers to skyrocket. Posted on YouTube in February, an audio-only version has been streamed more than 2.8 million times. An instantly catchy ode to living large, with Chicken stretching out the word "cheap" throughout the song like taffy, the melodic vocal hook is an unshakable earworm, all the richer floating off the forward momentum of Chicken's flow, a snapping beat and a bit of blown-out bass. That includes his biggest hit to date, "Fast Cash Babies," featuring local rapper Jigg. He's in a whopping 53 videos that have each been streamed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. If this subset of Milwaukee's hip-hop scene can have a designated leader, Chicken is it. "All Stars" also features Chicken P, formerly known as Lil Chicken. That includes "All Stars," a collaboration that also includes Mari Boyz and has been seen 1.5 million times on YouTube. MT, featuring twin brothers Donno and Dexxx, has 17 videos to its name, with hundreds of thousands of views. Nevertheless, millions of people are paying attention. "We don't have the right people paying attention to the city." "We have the same amount of views as Detroit rappers, California rappers, and I don't understand why those opportunities haven't happened yet," he said.

One song - "Noon" with local rapper 54 Baby Trey - has been watched 1.1 million times since July. "That is the conversation I have every day with the guys," said Mari Boy Mula Mar from the Mari Boyz collective.įinding a fan base with his signature, sugary, Auto-Tune-soaked flow, Mari Boy Mula Mar is on three of the four most popular songs in Milwaukee on Spotify, and was featured in 18 music videos released in 2019 that each had at least 100,000 YouTube views. And the big question is if any of the music industry's gatekeepers - from local talent buyers to national record labels - will help make that happen. The big challenge now is turning that heat into a sustainable career. The icing on the cake is that, just this past weekend, Paul Kennedy at 105.9 Seaside-FM in Halifax did a live on-air phone interview with Max and debuted his breakout single while my parents enjoyed their first dance to “I Cried,” playing through their radio.Yet with catchy songs and gripping videos inspired by their lives on the streets, they're getting hundreds of thousands, even millions, of YouTube views for nearly every song they drop. Ross Billard did everything else at his studio in Halifax and, 52 years after writing the song, my dad finally got to record his first single, at the age of 73. He said it again recently and so I said “let’s do it.” We recorded the vocals at my place with Max singing lead and Sons of Maxwell singing background. Max and Sharon patched things up and the rest is history.ĭuring ‘The Dark Period’ however, my dad wrote a song to win my mother back, called ‘I Cried.’ That was 52 years ago and Don and I grew up hearing Max play it occasionally at home and, many times, he’d say “I’d like to hear someone record that sometime. My Dad didn’t appreciate this other gentleman caller and eventually, neither did my mom. Before my folks got married their relationship hit a little bump in the road and, for a short while, my mom entertained another prospect.
