“…his work is grounded in political awareness and confident poetics. Yet more than anything, he seems interested in conveying his own personality through his music—both as a recording artist and as an entertainer.” — Noisey
“If you’ve yet to experience the jubilance of Ric Wilson, jump back and get familiar with one of our favorite young guns in the game. — Okayplayer
“He may be just old enough to drink, but it feels like he’s been making music for decades.” — Mass Appeal
“With his witty wordplay laid over soulful instrumentals, Wilson produces some of the most exciting new music to come out of Chicago.” — Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye
Chicago’s own nouveau disco-rap superstar, RicWilson, is pleased to announce his new EP, BANBA, out May18th on Innovative Leisure. A 22 year-old community activist and artist based on the Southside of Chicago, Ric got his start with the legendary YCA (YoungChicagoAuthors), the Chicago-based storytelling and poetry organization which helped launch the likes of Saba, JamilaWoods, ChanceTheRapper, VicMensa, MickJenkins, Noname, and many others. The EP’s first single, “Split,” premiered earlier this morning via Noisey.
“I wrote ‘Split’ in the middle of a relationship that was going south,” says Ric. “The song is about how sometimes the best decisions you’ll make in life are the ugliest and hardest, but the healthiest for you.”
BANBA is Wilson’s first release since 2017’s acclaimed Negrow Disco EP (stream here). “When I dropped out of college to do music, I caught myself trying to explain the music I do in a different light than what it really was because I was scared of other people’s perception of my ‘rap music,’ Ric says. “I feel like people don’t appreciate rap as an actual art form, which is insane because there’s an art to rhyming, every beat is a colorful canvas and every lyric and rhyme is a stroke of mine.”
As for the EP’s cover, it’s “an ode to Basiqaut and Hebru Brantley who are my favorite visual artists,” says Ric. I want people to feel like they’re in a Basiqaut and Brantley-inspired painting when they’re listening to this EP.”
I've been a music fan since my parents gave me a record player for Christmas when I was still in grade school. The first record I remember owning was "Sesame Street Disco." I've been a professional writer since 2004, but writing long before that. My first published work was in a middle school literary magazine and was a story about a zoo in which the animals could talk.
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