PICKED 2 CLICK Group to Win Picked to Click Since It Began the 23Rd Installment of Picked to Click, Or When the Rappers Took Over in 1991
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second before she started rebuilding it in her likeness. A year ago, she, Sophia Eris, and Claire de Lune were only a few months into their existence as the bombastic party clan the Chalice, and barely had any songs to their name. Still, they became the fi rst hip-hop PICKED 2 CLICK group to win Picked to Click since it began The 23rd installment of Picked to Click, or when the rappers took over in 1991. Now she’s the only rapper to repeat that feat. It’s hard to imagine that Lizzo doesn’t know that this is why she’ll be photographed again at the City Pages offi ces in a few minutes. With her many wigs NTIL LAST YEAR, stowed in her silver no rap act had Toyota, she’s taking a ever won Picked to break from opening UClick, City Pages’ for Har Mar Superstar yearly poll of the best new on his fall tour to do local artists. Not Atmo- several Twin Cities sphere (23rd in 1997), not appearances. As Heiruspecs (24th in 2001), we talk at a coffee not Dessa (26th in 2007), shop, she’s confi dent and definitely not Prof (31st and expansive. Her in 2006). A few who came gesticulating digits closer include Brother Ali have nails that are (4th in 2003), Kill the Vultures white with pointy (3rd in 2005), and Maria Isa red tips — much like (5th in 2006), but only in the foam hand Miley 2004 did rap make the top Cyrus thumped two when P.O.S/Doomtree into Robin Thicke’s finished behind the Olympic crotch during the Hopefuls. Finally in 2012, the 2013 MTV VMAs. Chalice edged out Pony Trash She says she didn’t for the win. realize the similarity, Proving that hip-hop’s but admits enduring enhanced Picked to Click some overlap with the presence wasn’t an anomaly, rebel ex-Disney star. Lizzo, Greg Grease, and Miley’s new album GRRRL PRTY lead this is called Bangerz, but year’s group. (And yes, we then Lizzobangers is know that some of that the one that actually awareness stems from ties bangs. to the Chalice.) Sure, plenty “I’m like, this of rappers have thrived here isn’t trap. This isn’t without a Picked to Click boom-bap,” she says, bump. But right now, Twin describing the beats Cities hip-hop itself is on the she raps over with podium. —REED FISCHER myriad cadences at her pointy fi ngertips. “What is it? It’s dope. I call it superhero music. I think he makes superhero music.” The “he” of this scenario is Lazerbeak, EMILY UTNE / HAIR & MAKEUP BY AMBER ROSE EMILY a.k.a. Twin Cities rap collective Doomtree’s beat architect and a spastic drummer on his MPC. Last year, they met at Fifth Element # says Lizzo midway through a conversa- on Record Store Day after a performance tion with City Pages. That makes a whole of his instrumental beat tape Lava Bangers music scene of us. with Plain Ole Bill. “She was in the crowd 1 LIZZO Everything you need to know on that and jumped onstage after and hugged us BY REED FISCHER topic is addressed on her debut full-length, both and said she loved that record,” he Lizzobangers. “I ain’t your hook girl, boo, recalls. By a few tweets later, she, ’Beak, I’m your feature/And I don’t need your producer Ryan Olson, and hypeman Cliff attention because of my features,” she spits Rhymes had decided convene in “a sweaty, “I’m so glad you on the menacing “Hot Dish,” one of several smoky room.” ain’t asked a tracks that interweave autobiography When Lizzo tells stories, she imitates with her brash artistic stance. Far from the voices of her characters and adds question about just another “rapper with a womb,” Lizzo sounds effects. A whoosh escapes her lips to being a woman has an allure that’s far more rarefi ed. This encapsulate what listening to Lava Bangers daughter of Detroit and Houston needed in hip-hop,” to be in Minneapolis for only about a split CITYPAGES.COM OCTOBER 16–22, 2013 CITY PAGES 9 did for her writing. In the midst of the HE THREE ENTERTAINING Chalice blowing up and the crumbling of VER ladies of GRRRL PRTY are cap- another group, Lizzo & Larva Ink, she was THE tivating enough to host their own creatively blocked. PAST T hip-hop version of The View. “His chord progressions moved me a lot,” O12 Instead, these friends’ in-jokes and conviv- she says, getting serious and displaying an months, we’ve gotten ial banter color one of the area’s most excit- accomplished fl utist’s knowledge of music to know a lot about ing new rap acts. theory. “This is so overused, but the Beatles Greg Grease, but You already know Lizzo from the cover have this thing where they go [hums a few this could be just the of this issue. Here, she’s joined by Sophia bars]. It’s a half-step down and a jump jump-off. The rapper, Eris, her cohort from 2012’s Picked to down to a minor third or something. It’s so producer, storyteller, Click champs the Chalice. And then there pretty to me. You can easily make someone and musical col- is Manchita, who also collaborated with cry. They’re like [dramatic voice], ‘Oh my laborator won’t let Lizzo in Tha Clerb, and has returned to god’ like Jurassic Park. Music can literally, himself be confined Minneapolis after an extended sojourn to scientifi cally bring on emotions.” to any one thing. Chicago. Got it straight? The emotions spilling out of Lizzobangers “I really just want Conversations about the formation of — using ’Beak beats from Lava Bangers as to show people that GRRRL PRTY took place well before the well as more recent creations — are varied. there’s more than Chalice came together and blew up on There are plenty of boasts and playful one way of doing the scene. “These are the types of musical hooks, including one declaring, “I’ve got my anything,” Grease projects that people like to get into, you batches and cookies.” That one is a product says. And then, as know what I mean,” explains Lizzo. “It’s of stream-of-consciousness talks with Eris, though to play down not like one group or another; this is her tour DJ. “Things’ll just come out of my the importance of Minneapolis. So every time somebody mouth,” she says. “She’ll be like, ‘Save that!’” such a claim, MYCHEL FISHER wants to create something new it’s As for “Go,” Lizzo instructed Lazerbeak to he adds with a # completely acceptable. GRRRL PRTY slow it down to 60 bpm so that she could laugh, “I think 2 GREG GREASE is so fun, and so hip-hop, and fulfi lls so sing over it in a soulful, vulnerable fashion. I’m just trying much of my N.W.A. tendencies.” BY JEFF GAGE “She’s naturally, insanely gifted,” Olson to impress A lot of ground gets covered in fi rst says. “And is so gripped. Her natural musical my friends a single “Wegula,” a song that evolved from grip is unfuckwithable. She knows what she lot. And I have a lot of really good artist (“Before I hit puberty,” he jokes) and then a late-night run to White Castle. It’s a sassy wants to do and she’s super good at it.” friends, so that probably plays into it.” as the drummer. Today, that southern-fried introduction, and showcases each rapper’s Part of this grip is an attention to what One thing he’s grown especially adept gospel fl avor is still deeply ingrained in unique power on the mic. Live, they’re works onstage for more obvious “women at, through recent records like 2012’s the thick, luxurious grooves of his music. accompanied by the duo of DJ Lanae & the in music” heroes like Beyonce and Tina Cornbread, Pearl, and G and especially But in truth, Grease — an avid reader, a Hot Pants, and DJ Clean Drop. Turner, but also Har Mar, Prof, and last spring’s Black King Cole EP, is lover of fi lms, and a would-be visual artist “We just started making more and especially Mars Volta/At the Drive-In conjuring the reality of being young and — draws on more than just music for his more songs, and we were like, ‘Why frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala. “That’s my black in this country. “There’s so many inspiration, even if it remains his central don’t we just do this?,’” Manchita says. biggest example of controlled chaos,” she different levels of life,” he says. “I really creative outlet. Thus, when he springs “When you work well with someone you says, alluding to her prog-rock(!) past. “‘He just think I try to show the perspective of a surprise like jumping onstage with hold on, and you’re like, ‘This feels good, didn’t mean to scream like that, he didn’t people who don’t have their perspectives Marijuana Deathsquads for a set in New this feels right.’ It was like when you’ve mean to throw the mic like that.’ Yes he shown.” He may not exactly be a York, or remixing a Poliça song, it’s all a got a crush on someone, or when you’re did.” “conscious” rapper, but there’s no piece of the same creative puzzle.