When it comes to Chicago music artists, there is a huge range of musicians and performers. At times, some artists can blend together and others stick out like they’re Kanye West. There’s a Chicago artist that is most definitely sticking out right now and that’s tobi lou. I first heard about tobi when I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw a tweet that pretty much said I was sleeping on a very talented upcoming artist. I listened to a few songs and I was most definitely sleeping. I started to look into him a bit more and found out he was from Chicago which made it even better. I noticed from the beginning that tobi was completely unique compared to any artist I was rocking with.
The first song I really had on repeat was “Your Kind of Love” and every person I show it to says “Who is this guy?” The quality is there and the talent is undeniable which is most likely why I’m always asked that question when I play his music. Tobi started out 2018 strong with his three-song EP “tobi lou and the Moon” and it was outstanding. He delivered a video for all three tracks and they are creative to say the least. Each of the videos has a cartoon feel to them and that’s something tobi has incorporated in a lot of his work. The videos are directed by tobi and Glassface, who also had a big hand in creating Lil Yachty’s “Forever Young” lyric video and “1 NIGHT” video.
Tobi lou is back with his new track, “Troop” featuring Smino who is also a Chicago native. I had very high expectations for this track and when I heard it, my expectations were exceeded. The song immediately has a happy feel to it that is hard to not enjoy. In addition, I think the beat goes well with the cartoon style cover art and theme of tobi’s previous work. Tobi absolutely kills the vocals and this track and continues to impress with each song he drops. He taps Smino for the second verse of the song and he does his thing in his own style. It’s always refreshing when artists collaborate and they do their own thing. Smino shows his lyrical ability and even sings a bit. In my opinion, this is some of tobi’s best work yet, especially the video which was released the day after the song dropped.
After the song dropped, tobi posted a snippet of the video and said it would be premiered on Pigeons and Planes. The snippet looked insane and created such a hype before the official drop. When I saw the video for the first time, I was shook by how creative and genius it was. The animations and effects are out of this world! When Smino comes in, he’s shrunk down to miniature size. Tobi sits behind him rubbing his eyes in disbelief! I had to rewatch and take it all in again. In the meantime, the video has received nods from Justin Escalona, Vibe Magazine, and many more.
From the looks of it, tobi lou is not slowing down anytime soon. The way he’s moving in 2018, who knows what we should expect. Hopefully some more incredible music and videos to go along with it. Tobi has a lot of momentum after dropping this and let’s hope he keeps that momentum going!
