Sidewalk Chalk writes next stage for hip-hop

  Sidewalk Chalk, named "Best Hip-Hop Act in Chicago of 2010" by the Chicago Reader, has fashioned an original sound by blending hip-hop with soul and jazz, as can be heard on its debut full-length album, "Corner Store." [Charlie Coffeen] says the band members knew from the begin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe South Bend tribune
Main Author Conway, Tom
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published South Bend, Ind South Bend Tribune Corporation 06.12.2012
Subjects
Coffeen, Charlie
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Summary:  Sidewalk Chalk, named "Best Hip-Hop Act in Chicago of 2010" by the Chicago Reader, has fashioned an original sound by blending hip-hop with soul and jazz, as can be heard on its debut full-length album, "Corner Store." [Charlie Coffeen] says the band members knew from the beginning the way they wanted Sidewalk Chalk to sound, but it has grown organically since then. Sidewalk Chalk, nominated for "Best New Entertainer" and "Most Outstanding Band or Group" at the 2012 Chicago Music Awards, has one foot in the Chicago hip-hop scene and the other in the city's jazz music circles, and Coffeen, who teaches a hip-hop history class at Columbia, sees that as the natural order of things. "All of us are steeped in hip-hop's roots," he says. "We are all hip-hop-heads. But we are as much inspired by J Dilla as we are John Coltrane, Earth, Wind & Fire and Otis Redding, and the old-school funk. There is just something special about a live band onstage interacting with vocalists that you really can't re-create with a DJ."