Chicago hip hop

The hip hop scene in Chicago, Illinois, has produced many artists of various styles. Famous rappers in Chicago include Chance the Rapper, Da Brat and Kanye West.

Chicago hip hop artists have never coalesced around an easily defined style or sound (with the exception of the recent drill scene). Instead, Chicago hip hop artists took inspiration from a variety of regional influences – initially the East Coast, with its jazz and soul based sampling and "conscious" lyricism. At the same time, other Chicago artists embraced West Coast production, with its funky, synth-driven instrumentation. Eventually, artists like Twista, Do or Die, Crucial Conflict and Psychodrama put their own twist on West Coast instrumentation, adding double-time high hat patterns, and, in what would become Chicago's first, home-grown, and immediately recognizable "style", rapping in double or triple time over the funky, synth-driven beats.

Chicago hip hop's embrace of eclectic regional styles was also reflected in (and probably influenced by) the playlists of local hip hop radio stations, which gave West Coast, East Coast, and especially southern Hip Hop equal consideration.

Choppers, or rappers with incredibly fast flow, originated primarily in the Midwest and in the 1990s, with the scene in Chicago becoming the city's first cohesive hip hop style. The most significant rappers and groups to come out of Chicago during this time included Do or Die, Crucial Conflict, and Twista, who at one point was considered the world's fastest rapper.

The success of Kanye West has had a ripple effect on the local hip hop, with his production style (dubbed "chipmunk soul" for West's sampling and pitching-up of soul vocals) having a large impact on albums like Common's critically acclaimed album Be and Twista's Kamikaze, both of whom are Chicago hip hop veterans and both of whom have guested on West's tracks. His alternative, non-gangster sound also helped pave the way for non-gangster rappers like Lupe Fiasco, whose career had a huge boost when he guested on West's track "Touch The Sky", in addition to conscious rappers such as Rhymefest. West's influence is still felt in the local hip hop scene by up and coming rappers like Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper, with West's The College Dropout being the first hip hop record Chance ever heard.

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