Image via Complex Original
Few paradigms in contemporary music discourse are more fraught than “genre.” For years music journalists have thrown the term around the streets like Tom Brady, soldering regional nuance into ham-fisted -isms. Nowhere has this been more evident than Chicago, where a group of three teens can’t sneeze on the same block without launching hashtags in New York and L.A. Call it the Butterfly Effect.
This is not to say that genres don’t exist, or that youth trends aren't shaped by local swag kingpins and their impressionable copycats. The problem is outsiders swooping in and cataloging emergent styles into ironclad genres before their time, freezing the fractious course of youthful creativity into a set of prix fixe gestures. Audiences lap up the initial novelty, then lose interest. It’s like sticking a pin through a still-living insect.
Let’s take bop. A few years ago, Chicago teens hit on the brilliant idea of harnessing Keef and Durk’s dark energy for sunnier pastures. Artists like Sicko Mobb combined drill’s ferocity with the buoyant video-game textures of 2011 street hits like “Gucci Goggles” and “Zan With That Lean.” A few videos went viral, kids freaked out, critics freaked out, and then A&Rs came knocking. Two years later Sicko Mobb have a major label deal, three great mixtapes, an A$AP Ferg co-sign, and a record on the way. Meanwhile, critics and consumers have moved on from the genre tag and affiliated artists, satisfied with another youth movement filed in the cultural Pokedex. Bop gathers dust on the shelf next to jerk and hyphy in the coastal aggregation factories.
Except for one thing—kids in Chicago keep making it. A new generation of artists like MBE, Keyani, Heaven, Neil Gang, Team Flee, Ballout Boys, and Cornbread haven’t stopped cranking out melody-soaked heaters. They’re largely unknown outside their city, and they aren’t doing YouTube numbers like the first wave, but they’ve got pop instincts to rival any teenagers in the country.
After 2013 the critical spotlight’s glare left as quickly as as it came. In its absence bop continues to flourish, a mushroom in the dark. It’s really less a genre than a lifestyle—the frantic pursuit of ecstasy, cramming fun down the listener’s throat. Some find it hard to swallow. But in a city where kids face endemic violence and opposition from every angle, a little light goes a long way. Bop will continue thriving as long as Chicago forces kids to create joy on their own terms—whether you're paying attention or not.
Here's a handful of tracks—all from 2014 and 2015—reflecting the scene’s vitality and variety. Get familiar.
Ezra Marcus is a writer living in New York. Follow him @ezra_marc.
MBE "Feeling Good"
Many bop artists have slowed their tempos after the initial 160 BPM wave, but energetic duo MBE can’t stop gassing the jet. This one jumps off at a heart-stopping pace and doesn’t let up—MBE keep the torch lit for bop that feels like drinking a little league baseball team’s worth of Capri Suns.
MBE "KowaBunga"
Skating is officially washed. Surfing’s next. Grab your Supreme wetsuit and film a tubular POV vid to this.
Heaven "Don't Shoot"
This wasn’t just my favorite bop song of 2014, it’s my favorite piece of music from the last 12 months. “Heaven” is a pre-teen miracle with a simple request—“I’m only 9, and I wanna grow up. So put the guns down.” Come for the message and stay for the shimmering near-ambient bubble-pop production. Jaw-dropping.
Don’t sleep on her dance tutorial “Fun 2 Day” either.
Cornbread and Mudd Gang "Gang"
Mudd Gang produced most of Super Saiyan Vol. 1, along with half the songs on this list—he’s bop game Phil Spector. Here he’s on the mic and the boards, alongside Cornbread, a rising MC with hooks for days.
Neil Gang "Goofy"
Rapper Neil Gang goes in over another incandescent beat from Mudd Gang. I love the way Mudd throws a low-pass filter over his neon synths right as they peak, letting the MC’s voice float suspended for a few bars before dropping the melody back in.
Ballout Boys "Go Crazy"
The relationship between bop’s hyper-saturated synths and its artists’ fluorescent dreads is the most acute synchronicity between sound and hairstyle since Serj Tankian’s goatee.
Ballout Boys "Buy It All"
I’m obsessed with how much this production sounds like Aphex Twin’s “Nannou.”
Team Flee "Colada"
As the YouTube description says, “They Are Bringing You Another Hit Which is Bringing That California Beach Life straight to your Hoods to have every fee fee,party,event on Smash #2015.” Can’t argue with that.
King Kemo and Cornbread "TTU"
Mudd Gang goes straight Paul Van Dyk on this. Cornbread and Kemo—one of the original titans of bop dance—keep things suitably PLUR.
Bop King Dlow "Turn My Music Up"
Along with Kemo, Dlow first popped off as a dancer in videos for first-wave bop hits like Stunt Taylor’s “Fe Fe on the Block.” He’s recently been stepping out into the booth, where he’s more than capable—with Mudd Gang on the track it’s a wrap. Steel drums peeking out beneath the synths launch this into the stratosphere.
Keyani "Can’t Stop"
Keyani had an early bop hit with her 2013 song “Bop With Me.” Her follow-up a year later is a confident kiss-off to broke boys and sneak dissers over martial claps.
DJ Nate f/ Dre Foe and Sicko Mobb "Take Me Out My Glow"
You can’t talk about bop without DJ Nate (a.k.a. Bakaman, a.k.a. Flexxbabii). His 2011 “Gucci Goggles” laid the foundation for the sound, and he hasn’t stopped since. This early 2015 Sicko Mobb collaboration barely moved the needle, but it’s a transcendent example of the style from a true innovator.