Chicago hip-hop's "Big Homie," Vic Lloyd has been a rapper, DJ, mentor, streetwear designer(see his Big Homie Sensei line), and one of the city's most important cultural figures. He's worked with anyone who's anyone in Chicago hip-hop at one time or another. Vic is a DJ with a fingerprint-unique identity, a sound driven by Chicago's taste for class…

Cabrini Green's own MC Tree G is a critically-acclaimed rapper-producer whose sound broke to some international recognition in 2012, an example of the wide-ranging sound of Chicago's diverse hip-hop scene. Though there were label deals in the works, things don't always work out--first among them, the desires of an artist and the expectations of sho…