Photo By Marc Moran
On Tuesday, highly influential hip-hop journalist, Andrew Nosnitsky b.k.a. Noz, penned a piece for MTV’s Hive called The Five Best Mixtapes of 2012 So Far. The list included big name, major label artists such as Rick Ross and Future, and blog stars like Gunplay. One name the masses were likely unfamiliar with was Chicago’s own, Tree, whose Sunday School project clocked in at number three. This placement was shocking to even Tree himself; but as most of us can agree, it is one of the best projects of the year. The review concluded:
While Chicago has produced more visible stars this year — viral video goon turned Kanye collaborator Chief Keef, in particular — it’s Tree who might stand as the city’s greatest rising talent. Sunday School is a quiet collection of spiritually charged, Scarface-esque reality raps set to his self-produced bed of finely chopped and curiously arranged soul samples.
We caught up with Tree to get his thoughts on the honor, and check in on the last 48 hours of his life:
I first saw the link after my dude Drew over at FSD sent it to me on Twitter, like “Hey, did you know you’re on MTV?” I was like “Huh? ME!? Naw, they got Tree mixed up with Keef (as in Chief Keef).” At first I thought they just posted the video for “ALL” from the Sunday School mixtape, but after checking it out I was like “Whoa! Wow! How did that happen?” That’s all I could say for hours afterwards.How could I produce and record a mixtape in my room with no major sponsors or budget, and have it land on music’s biggest platform as top five mixtape of the year? With Rick Ross and Future? Wow. I’m truly grateful. I owe it all to the bloggers and fam who helped push Sunday School with our own time and money. Thank you.