Tonight at 9 p.m., Gardner Lounge will host two talented acts from the New York DJ collaborative Future Brown—J-Cush and Fatima Al Qadiri—as well as up-and-coming Chicago rapper and singer, Tink.
J-Cush has been playing the techno/house/electronic music scene for more than a decade. His Future Brown outfit includes the two DJs of Nguzunguzu, who played at Grinnell in February 2012 under the moniker The Claw. Al-Qadiri is the fourth member of the group, a Kuwait-raised composer and visual artist based in New York.
Tink, real name Trinity Home, is fresh out of high school, where her rapping career first began. She has already been featured by numerous acts, including Chicago rapper Sasha Go Hard—who played in Gardner in February of last year—and J-Cush and Al-Qadiri’s own Future Brown.
Tink began to develop her musical talent at a young age, singing at her church from age five, and, according to an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication in 2012, she got into rap almost by accident. After putting a few videos on Facebook for her friends, she quickly moved into singing, rapping and recording much more seriously, releasing four mixtapes and providing vocals for a track with Future Brown, “Wanna Party,” that has garnered over 100,000 listens on SoundCloud in three months.
Last week, Future Brown played at the New York Museum of Modern Art’s performance center as part of an exhibition entitled “Drills,” in which their music was deftly coordinated with the choreographed exercises of three basketball players.
Though Tink has largely moved towards rap and away from the R&B of her original 2012 mixtape, “Winter’s Diary,” she still puts her vocal talent to good use on many of her songs.
“She blends R&B and hard-edged rap in a way I haven’t heard in a while,” said Concerts Committee member Emily Mester ’14 in an email correspondence with the S&B.
The concert will be a one-off event for Tink, who is not on tour, although she has played shows outside the Chicago area before. Likewise, J-Cush and Al-Qadiri will be flying in from New York just to play at Grinnell.
SGA Concerts Chair Moira Donovan ’14 initially tried to invite the entire Future Brown crew, but scheduling issues interfered. However, Donovan expects the youngest member will be the main draw for Grinnell students.
“I think that people are more aware of Tink because she’s from Chicago and we have a very large population of kids from Chicago,” Donovan said. “They know who Tink is, they knew who Sasha Go Hard was.”
Grinnell can look forward to more acts from the vibrant, collaborative Lake Shore hip-hop community in the future.
“I try to book a lot from the Chicago rap scene. I think they have a really good thing going on there,” Donovan said.
