- [Producer] I haven't heard anything.

- How is that possible?

- Okay, play "Crush."

- All right.

- I'm gonna play it from the beginning.

- From the beginning, I agree.

- This is a story.

- Yeah.

("Crush" playing) - Music has always been a passion of mine.

Like, I've been singing ever since I could talk.

I've got an album that I've been working on since 2019, and it's 10 songs long.

- So who's the other artist?

- What you mean other artist?

In that song?

- The high-pitch voice.

- That's me.

- That was, that was you?

- Yeah, that's me.

- That was you and you?

- That was me and me.

I don't really have a genre.

People describe it as alternative R&B.

People describe it as neo-soul.

I think that operating in a realm without genre has allowed me to sort of bridge the gaps across Chicago, and I think that every sort of, like, side of the city has their own style of art.

So, like, you've got the West side artists who have this sort of, like, very soulful way of sing-songy rev.

I sort of wanted some more gospel sounding artists, which is another Chicago signature.

So, like, here in, even there, I, like, directly reference, like, being physically separate from, like, spaces, you know?

Am I hitting these roadblocks that are, like, basically just due to, like, race and access and, like, where I'm from?

I feel like the arts industries don't thrive in Chicago like they should, so it's my purpose to recreate a space for that and a space for longevity and opportunities for collaboration because I feel like that's another piece in Chicago that's missing is just artists don't reach outside of their circles.

- And I really hate to use this word 'cause it's kind of cringe.

But I know, like, in the city, shit is very clout based.

It's really about who you know.

It doesn't matter how talented you are, honestly.

- But you can't know those people if you're so, like, split up in the city.

If you're, if the city's segregated, you will never get into those same spaces with, like, who you need to know.

Like... - Some of those people want to stay split up too.

- In Chicago, if you're a part of this group, then you're a part of this group.

And you're known as that forever.

Like, you're branded.

And if you're not in there, then too bad.

Now you don't have access to those artists.

Do you think that you have to pursue a different city in order to progress your career because Chicago just doesn't give that to you?

- You don't have to leave, but you can.

And we talk about segregation, if you're only touching people in Lincoln Park, people in Bronzeville not gonna hear you.

- No.

- Mm-mmm.

- If you're performing in Bronzeville, people in Forest Park not gonna hear you.

- Right.

- But you wanna touch all those crowds at one time and relate to them.

- Like, how do you do that?

Like, how do you unite a segregated city that seems to not wanna support artists from certain neighborhoods or certain communities or certain genres?

We're being played by this huge thing that's been around in the city of Chicago forever, since its foundation as a city.

So how can we talk about that?

How can we address it?

How can we accept that the city is still segregated, you know, almost 200 years later?

And I think that the best way to do that is through an easy medium to digest, and that's just art.

I'm gonna play a couple more songs 'cause we got, like... Segregation is so pervasive.

You can't really escape it.

You'll notice the scenery of neighborhoods change as you drive from, you know, mile to mile just in any particular street, in any particular direction.

All of the city just transform around you.

You'll see, like, a lack of greenery around 63rd.

You'll see an abundance of greenery.

Like, you'll hit downtown.

And it'll just look different, you know, every 10 blocks or so.

And different parts of the city have different feels, and I feel like that's, there's a beauty to that, you know.

There is something magnificent about having so many voices heard, but why can't those voices resonate with each other?

Why do we have to live in discord?

I think that a way to explore culture is through, like, you know, the taste palate.

So I really love how many options there are for food in Chicago.

(foreign language) I consider myself a polyglot.

I speak Spanish, German.

I sign, American sign language.

It's one of the biggest tools that we have as a human race is just the ability to talk to one another.

(foreign language) That separate us.

(foreign language) Language dissolves barriers, so just linguistics, as a background, in general, allows me to understand what people are communicating.

It feels great to be able to just sort of communicate with people in their comfort zone.

Dude, there's sausage strips.

- I'm just trying 'cause this is something we've never tried before.

- I know.

- So... - I grew up on the South side of Chicago in Marquette Park, very historic neighborhood, originally Lithuanian.

It's the historic neighborhood where Martin Luther King marched through and, you know, rocks and eggs and all types of things were thrown at him, insults as well.

And, eventually, the neighborhood was integrated.

And now I'm here, so clearly that worked.

Where did we get this cake from again?

- We got it from a Polish bakery.

- Oh yeah, it was, like, Northwest, right?

- Lawrence and Austin or something like that?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It was far.

- And then you started speaking Polish to that lady.

She was really sweet.

- Yeah, she was really nice.

- What did they call you again?

- Wykalaczka, which just means "toothpick."

- It means "toothpick."

- Yeah, they said I didn't...

I sort of flip flopped back and forth between different demographics in school.

My grammar school closed down in the seventh grade, so I had to find another school to go to so a very, very, very dramatic change from an all-black school with an all-black staff on the South side of Chicago to a very, very, very white Christian background school where I was the only black person, really, within shouting distance, pretty much all times of the day and then, for high school, another all-black, all male as well, school.

And I was 12 when I started there, 16 when I finished.

I went to another primarily white school, The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

So I got to see, like, how different populations interacted with each other.

- As a parent, do you think I helped, sending you to the different schools rather than the ones right here in the neighborhood?

- Yeah, I feel like it was, it was always, like, a trek, you know, having to go down Southwest Highway to get to Oh-klon.

But in retrospect, you're looking at it like, "Oh, okay.

So wait, I did see subliminal messaging of, like, other communities even on the way to..." I want people to see what goes on in Chicago life on the day-to-day, what we celebrate, what we bring to the table, you know, what trials and tribulations we have, and what we create from that pain.

This is a taste of what to expect when we turn this into an actual exhibition where you can walk around in real life.

I wanted to illustrate the four sides of Chicago, North, South, East, and West.

And as you walk around the space, virtually...

I think that I'm just motivated by an intrinsic desire to create, so I thought that I needed to incorporate other mediums of art.

And I felt like photography was a very cool medium to explore music through, and I sent my songs to four photographers in Chicago.

And I had them just sort of dissect what they heard, and a lot of them came back to me with some very interesting concepts.

This photo series that was shot in Wicker Park, we did it on the element of gentrification so...

But then you can venture over to the South side, and this is what's just sort of a more abstract way of saying that...

It's water.

It's rain droplets on a window.

But if you look at it in the context of the city of Chicago, you'll see, while they're all separate, at the end of the day, it's the same thing.

It's the same molecules.

It's the same structure, so I think this is a really cool abstract way of representing how Chicago is segregated.

Segregation means that resources don't flow two ways or three ways or four ways all the time.

Usually, it's a one-way street.

When you're at the bottom of that street or that stream, the resources get really skimpy down there.

But when you're at the top of that stream, then it's like, "Oh, we got an abundance.

Let's take as much as we want whenever we want and not worry about the next man."

My ideal Chicago would look like a place that felt like home all over the city.

If there comes a time where we can visit a neighborhood without feeling like you're not a member of that community because we're all Chicagoians, and I think that we achieved what a city should be.

(gentle music)