Maximum Joy, Maximum Sorrow

[READER]( Graffiti artist [Greg "Werm One" Gunter]( texted me Saturday night. He was getting set up to make a mural in tribute to Earl Simmons, aka DMX, who died the day before at age 50. I've since had trouble articulating the power and humanity in DMX's musical vision. He's been omnipresent in my world since music became everything to me. His voice—his presence—informed my understanding of pop music. How can I possibly confront the death of someone who showed me how to use words for maximum joy and sorrow in the first place? Monday afternoon I dropped by Super Savings Food & Liquor in Belmont Gardens. I found Gunter set up along Super Savings' western wall on Kenneth Avenue. He had been working for about an hour by the time I showed up, and in that brief time he already cast DMX's face on the wall. I stood there for a while, watching Gunter detail DMX's facial hair one strand at a time and shade in his lips. Watching Gunter craft this tribute with great care gave me time to reflect; I returned to the spot on Tuesday to take in the finished mural. Artistic Bombing Crew member Breaker Ray, who also cofounded hip-hop nonprofit Renegades of Funk, had reached out to Gunter to make the DMX mural at Kenneth and Belmont. Ray helps ABC leader, graffiti artist, and documentarian Flash schedule murals around town—Flash spearheads the [Project Logan permission wall]( on Fullerton Avenue near Milwaukee Avenue. Project Logan has been the canvas for some of the best local tributes to hip-hop figures, including [A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg]( [MF Doom]( and Chicago rapper [Mic One](. Ray traces this local tradition back to 2008, when local graffiti artists paid tribute to b-boy Frosty Freeze of the legendary Rock Steady Crew with a mural on a wall of the Congress Theater. Flash launched the Project Logan permission wall a few years later. He schedules graffiti artists from around the city to put up new murals along the four-sided permission wall, but Project Logan isn't the only spot he oversees. Since he set up that endeavor, he's gone around town asking local businesses for permission to paint murals on their edifices—and the owners of Super Savings Food & Liquor gave Flash their blessings. When DMX passed away Friday, Flash had already set up Project Logan's new batch of murals. "Flash was like, 'Well, we've got the Kenneth wall on Belmont,'" Ray says. "Right now Werm is one of the hottest artists doing a lot of tributes, so we decided to get Werm." Ray says the DMX mural should be up for at least a couple months. I expect I'll return to Kenneth and Belmont several more times before then. Sincerely, Photos courtesy Leor Galil MORE ABOUT WERM ONE ["What DMX's Poetry of Death Did for Hip-Hop,"]( by Tirhakah Love (New York Times) [Demystification #3]( ["Chicago Artists to Watch, Spring/Summer 2021,"]( by Pedro Gonzalez, Alejandro Hernandez, Ellie Naughton, Iman Music, Carlos Castillo, Eric Montanez, Patrick Welby, Brent Butcher, and Michael Salisbury (These Days) Black Monument Ensemble, [NOW]( Lingua Nada, [Snuff]( Sammy Heck, [Ego Whip]( Spirit of the Beehive, [Entertainment, Death]( [‘It opened my mind to the possibilities of what music could be’]( The Jefferson Park EXP concert series brings a wild diversity of sounds to a neighborhood library—and to the Internet. By [Noah Berlatsky]( [@nberlat]( [A roof to raise on the gig poster of the week]( By [Salem Collo-Julin]( [@hollo]( [Gustavo Cortiñas explores Latin American history, culture, and resilience on Desafío Candente]( By [Catalina Maria Johnson]( [@catalinamariaj]( [Rethinking public art with the Chicago Monuments Project]( With 41 pieces flagged as potentially problematic, the city seeks input about next steps. By [Deanna Isaacs]( [@deannaisaacs]( [Avner Landes’s Meiselman gets it right]( Even though its titular character always does just the opposite By [Dmitry Samarov]( [Issue of April 1 - 14, 2021 Vol. 50, No. 14]( [Download Issue]( (PDF) 1971 Chicagoans have relied on the Reader for trusted alternative coverage of our city. The Chicago Reader is now a 501c3 nonprofit organization which means our survival is in your hands. In order to continue to be your trusted alternative voice of Chicago, we need your help. 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