In the 2000s, Chicago hip-hop broke out via Kanye West, Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, and the Cool Kids, but no other local rapper was as emblematic of the city during that era as Terrance Boykin, better known as Bump J. With his unassuming intellect, everyman worldview, and easygoing poise, Bump J approaches rapping as if the instrumentals he works with have to fit his flow rather than be calibrated the other way around. For a moment in the mid-aughts as major labels came through town to kick the scene’s tires, Bump was primed to be the next breakthrough, riding a series of hot mixtapes to a deal with Atlantic.…
In the 2000s, Chicago hip-hop broke out via Kanye West, Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, and the Cool Kids, but no other local rapper was as emblematic of the city during that era as Terrance Boykin, better known as Bump J. With his unassuming intellect, everyman worldview, and easygoing poise, Bump J approaches rapping as if the instrumentals he works with have to fit his flow rather than be calibrated the other way around. For a moment in the mid-aughts as major labels came through town to kick the scene’s tires, Bump was primed to be the next breakthrough, riding a series of hot mixtapes to a deal with Atlantic.…