🎚 My 15-hour playlist of Milwaukee hip-hop

Intense listening experiences can be energizing. [READER]( The Daily Reader Last week [I came across a post]( making the rounds on music Twitter rounding up 61 full-lengths and EPs that emerged from Milwaukee’s bustling hip-hop scene last month. So I collected everything I could find on Spotify into a 15-hour, ten-minute playlist. (If you’re curious, [here’s a link]( Whenever I try to acquaint myself with a regional music culture, I try to listen to as much as I possibly can at that very moment. Of course, I can only listen to one song at one moment. If I’m feeling particularly impatient I tend to jump from one track before it’s halfway through to another recording by a totally different artist for the same length of time or less. I find these intense listening experiences can often be energizing; I can spend hours chasing hyperlinks, and every new song that sparks my interest has the potential to open doors to even more musical worlds that have the potential to leave my head spinning. After a few hours—and depending on what time of the night I’ve begun my journey—this can also leave me exhausted. The rudimentary playlist I assembled has allowed me to listen at a more measured pace . . . so far, anyway. Rather than trying to eat my way through a row of restaurants in just a few hours, I’m able to savor what’s in front of me a little easier. So when I went to run 5k over the weekend, I knew AyooLii’s boisterous material could give me a little boost when my energy felt depleted. I can’t possibly listen to the playlist’s full runtime in one go—at least, not with my current schedule. So I appreciate that this collection functions as a bookmark, allowing me to return to it after hours and remember what I wanted to listen to next. My listening habits are at the center of a constant tug-of-war between the organized part of my brain that likes to catalog what I’ve just heard and the chaotic part of my brain that likes to leave a lot of browser tabs open so I can return to a song or article of note, eventually. This playlist mollifies my anxieties around my attempts to listen to another scene more—at least, till I reach the end of it. Sincerely, [“The extremely online psychedelia of brakence,”]( by Mano Sundaresan (NPR) [“Digging Through Jangle Pop Legend Mark Mulcahy’s Expansive Archives,”]( by Jude Noel (Bandcamp) [“How Questlove Pulled Off the Grammys’ Crowd-Pleasing Hip-Hop Tribute,]( by Joe Coscarelli (The New York Times) Mt. Worry, [A Mountain of Fucking Worry]( Pugs Atomz, [Boom Bap on 79th Street (Happy Days)]( Names Divine, [The Crystal Arms!]( ❤️ Leor’s [“almost Valentine’s Day” playlist]( [J.T. Brown’s ‘nanny goat’ horn still echoes through the blues]( The hard-gigging saxophonist began his career traveling with the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels and ended it sitting in with Fleetwood Mac. by [Steve Krakow]( | [Read more]( → [Dan O’Conor, the Great Lake Jumper]( “There were no stages to play—I think for these artists to come down and play one or two songs, it kind of gave them a stage or venue.” by [Jamie Ludwig]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago indie rockers Fran help cushion the world’s tough blows with Leaving]( by [Leor Galil]( | more]( → 🗳 Seven. days. left! 🗳 Voting ends next Wednesday, February 15 at 12 PM. [Click here]( to vote for your favorite restaurants, sports teams, dispensaries, pet store, and so much more! [Issue of Jan. 26 – Feb. 8, 2023 Vol. 52, No. 8]( [View/Download Issue [PDF]]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2023 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616