Chuck Inglish oversees artist development in 'Everybody's Big Brother'
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By Alex Dionisio
Mount Clemens, MI to Chicago, IL rapper and main Cool Kids producer Chuck Inglish disappointed many by breaking away from his original music mate Sir Michael Rocks to pursue a solo career, but he is doing quite well on his own (and so is Rocks for that matter). Yesterday (Friday Oct. 2), Chuck (Evan Ingersoll) released his second solo studio album, Everybody's Big Brother, the followup to his Convertibles debut (2014) and a covenant to chill, idiosyncratic beats and fly lyrics.
Here, Chuck Inglish kindly puts on a bunch of artists, big (Boldly James, Asher Roth, Donnie Trumpet) and small (Maxo Kream, Grey Sweatpants, 10ille, ManManSavage, Insomniac Lamb$, etc.), but all cooly non-mainstream. Everybody's Big Brother is fun in that the participants have fun, taking in as many wild young sights, sounds and feelings as their spry yet always aging selves will allow, but as if it were a sign that they are already overexposed and experienced... a laid-back, observant tone is taken as they 'go out for the night' in each song. They, including Chuck, get as lyrical as non-nerdy, cool rap-music permits, and here, they prove it permits more than previously thought.
Chuck has made his casual beats with an almost early West Coast pastiche while still embedding them in sound-independence. Not quite left field and not quite strict IDM, the production finds a nice middle ground that takes from ambient 'cloud hip-hop' with one toe in the vast waters of psychedelia. For all these reasons, Everybody's Big Brother is untypically typical. We have a hip young rap record that slides by on cruise control but in a sleek classy vehicle (possibly a convertible if you get the hint) but refurbished, custom tailored and alterted just for Chuck Inglish's taste. He is the guide on this excursion, and for this trip, he takes all his wide-eyed siblings on a fanciful tour all around the town.
