On Monday Chicago magazine published the blog post “Six Months After Laquan McDonald Fallout, Chicago’s Starkest Protest Music Is Surfacing,” a headline that might sound true to you if you’ve only been paying attention for the past couple weeks. Assistant editor Matt Pollock found his hook in two recent releases: Vic Mensa’s EP There’s Alot Going On and the video for Jamila Woods’s “Blk Girl Soldier.” Pollock wrote, “That the movement’s sharpest music is surfacing now makes sense. Good protest songs take time to write and disseminate, and their videos take time to film.”
Perhaps Pollock didn’t mention “United Center” because he doesn’t think Money fits into what he vaguely defines as Chicago’s “activist community.” He doesn’t describe that community very precisely, other than to say it includes Woods and Mensa—and maybe a couple other locals. “With albums on the horizon from Lupe Fiasco and Mick Jenkins,” he writes, “there’s probably more to come.” On the surface those rappers’ reputations align with Pollock’s expectations. Jenkins released one hell of a protest song a couple years ago: “11,” a response to the death of Eric Garner at the hands of New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo. But, as Jenkins told me last year, he couldn’t continue making such bleak music. On 2015’s Wave[s] he dialed back the overtly political raps to focus on melodic, danceable material.
