Plus talking to Lili Trifilio of Beach Bunny
Lil Durk
The Chicago MC has been consistently hitting on personal projects and feature placements for years, But his show-stealing guest spot on Drake’s hit “Laugh Now, Cry Later” — which topped out at No. 2 on the Billboard charts — has proved to be an undeniable peak for the 27-yearold rapper. To follow it, Durk leads off the fall with his LP release, “The Voice.” Out Sept. 4.
Verzuz
The head-to-head, song-forsong livestream battles created by producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland has outgrown its DIY quarantine beginnings — and lost some of its charm, admittedly — but the numbers don’t lie: The most recent Brandy versus Monica Verzuz was the most successful to date, with more than 1 million viewers on IG Live.
Maybe we can get a Chicago Noname
Maybe no musician exemplifies the shift in artistic creation during 2020 more than Noname, who has spent most of her energy this year educating her fans and followers about radical social justice reforms and promoting “reading material for the homies” through her burgeoning Noname Book Club. No word on if or when her one-time third LP “Factory Baby” will be out. September readings: “Disability Visibility,” edited by Alice Wong, and “Capitalism
& Disability,” by Marta Russell. nonamebooks.com
Whitney
The (mostly) two-piece Chicago band recently took its affinity for cover songs and applied it to a full-length LP with August’s “Candid.” Whitney will be playing a special two night set later in September as part of the Lakeshore Drive-In series at the planetarium. 7 p.m. September 19-20, Adler Planetarium, 1362 S. Linn White Drive, $30-$300; universe.com/events