Aside from the occasional vegan pastor taco or tinga quesadilla with real cheese, Netherfriends has made it a point to indulge himself in simple pleasures in the time that he isn’t making six beats a day (to out do Kanye’s five). Taking up more reading, writing, or skateboarding are points of emphasis he’s chosen to keep consistent. Recently he’s taken up art, putting together a gallery show to go with his forthcoming album Ladyfriends, “a stoner love album / love memoir / how to do what you love book. “
Ladyfriends is a gallery showing on July 17th at a to be disclosed location in Chicago. The art displayed will be paintings and drawings of various women, accompanied with wireless 50 headsets, just like they use in silent discos. There will be three channels to listen to: first channel will be the album, second channel will be an audio book, the third channel will be a guided tour. All of the paintings will be sold for donation and there will be an early performance where Rosenblatt will play 3Peace and a later performance where he’ll play Ladyfriends.
In punk fashion, of course, he’s using everything from bad records, and pieces of wood from behind alley-way dumpsters, to thrift store pre-used canvas – all to fashion a series of crude (part of the appeal) replicas of women’s portraits ranging from Madonna to Judy Jetson. He’s currently in the midst of completing a Joan Rivers. “I’ll just draw girls I follow on Instagram, find in magazines or see in books at thrift shops, draw them from pictures. Playboy models, French women in bathing suits, female cartoon characters, female rappers, a lot of Chicago female rappers. Paintings on canvas, thrift store records, post cards, all sorts of shit, just garbage. I’ve only been painting for 6 months, and started drawing a year ago.”
For a man who tours three to four times a year, where he lays his hat is his home, or in his case it may be where he tacks up his tapestries, in whatever serves as his pop-up bedroom on “Tour4Ever.” At the moment though, he’s enjoying this strange happenstance of being embraced by his adoptive city: “Chicago is the new old New York City to a certain extent. Everyone keeps saying renaissance. It’s booming, the scene is amazing, it’s all within the rap scene and nothing else… There’s a lot of support in the rap community and its awesome.” Catching the attention artists attention like Lucki Eck$ and Hurt Everybody, at times he wonders about how he got here, how he fits in, though it’s mainly due to others wondering how he got here: “I have no idea how I fit in, it’s conflicting because I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing, so I do whatever I want. ‘bruh you’re not supposed to be in the rap scene, you’d make a lot more money staying inside the box.’ Rap is always evolving and it’s going to be around for a long time. I don’t see anybody looping live with rap, I don’t use a computer on stage, I don’t see that a lot in rap, I’m not a threat to rappers…yet. I’m trying to make music with the entire city of Chicago, I’m just aware we’re all trying to do the same shit.”
For now Netherfriends finds Logan Square to suit his needs, and he’ll be a busy man this summer, planning on playing every neighborhood in Chicago And maybe, he won’t leave this winter…maybe.