Born in Ravenswood, UG Vavy — née Ehigie Omwanghe — began producing in eighth grade, after his parents’ divorce. “I think out of loneliness or some shit like that, I started making beats. That passed my time, working on music,” he says. UG solely wanted to be a producer, but in ninth grade, his friend Fonz urged him to rap; UG acquiesced. Around that time, Fonz created the group BRKF$T CLUB, which UG, and a few of their friends — Calez, L.A. VanGogh, Julian Malone, Legit, Trap, and Sani — joined, and which later found its second incarnation as the 2008ighties.
BRKF$T CLUB made a splash in 2012 with the release of their group song, “The Fellowship.” The video — a playful adoption of Eric’s basement smoke sessions in That ‘70s Show, featuring the guys from BRKF$T CLUB sitting in a circle and a camera spinning around to show each emcee as they spit a verse — got picked up by Complex, MTV, Spin, DJ Booth, and others. Later that year, the group headlined a show at Reggies Rock Club.
A lot of rappers from Chicago share a similar story, of creating collectives as young kids, coming up together, and learning and enhancing their craft together. Sometimes these groups disband, sometimes they stay together; regardless, the bond remains. “They support me. We all support each other,” UG says, “Even though it’s not really a thing anymore, we still like collab with each other, hangout. Because we were friends before we even started putting out music together.”