If you look at Chicago-based label Closed Sessions’ roster, nearly all of them are up-and-comers, like Kweku Collins, Jamila Woods, Webster X and more, who work with the label to help elevate them to a higher platform of notoriety. But there’s an outlier: DJ Rude One.
The 42-year-old Chicago native has worked with DJ Premier and Kool G Rap in the past, but his last album — From Now On — came out 13 years ago.
“I just got burned out, just kinda fried,” he told the Chicago Reader in a recent interview. “I stopped making beats in 2006—I just wasn’t sure what I was doing anymore and why I was into it.”
He’s now back with a slew of respected rappers laying rhymes over his beats. Conway (“Andre Drummond“), Roc Marciano, Your Old Droog (“Mr. Goodbar“), Jeremiah Jae, SHIRT (“1,000 Dutches“), Westside Gunn and more.
Led by a few drops from the likes of Alchemist, Preemo and Kool G Rap, From Now On can be heard below.