Chicago has some of the more underrated hip-hop collectives in the country. At least that's how it appears sometimes. I'm not always the best at keeping up with the ways and goings-ons of local up-and-comers, but when accolades are due, they are due. Mother Fortune is the jackpot for weird, serious, but not too serious, alt-rap right now. Their latest album Mommy is missing has a Quelle Chris and Jean Grae collab crossed with a JPEGMAFIA EP sorta vibe- you're not really sure what you're going to get from track to track, but you know it's going to leave an impression as well as manage to twist that little nerve in your brain that all your existential thoughts have to run through before they're emptied into the trash bin of the unconscious. It's a high energy, effortlessly elastic, and penetrative poignant mix of R'nB, noise, chiptune, and odd pop art preoccupations that facilitates a threading weave that can run from Nnamdi, to Open Mike, to Death Grips, usually in the course of a single song. On this record, Mother Fortune feels like a more evolved Odd Future in many ways- there is a high premium placed on the group's sense of humor, but it never feels alienating or shocking for the sake of shock value. Instead, it rides like the group is letting you in on the joke and trying to get you to laugh along with them as they riff off Mario Savio soundbites, invent new culinary enigmas, toss out intentionally dated Superbad callbacks, and discuss going to dog shows while stone-tripping. It's all the kind of smack talk and goofball antics you'd get into while your Mom is away at work, and know you're not going to be under too much punishment if she catches you when she gets back. It's the odd kind of fun that feels like character-building as much as a diversion from school work, chores, work-work, or what have you. It's the kind of mischief that she might even be secretly proud of you for immortalizing in some kind of artistic endeavor after a fashion, even if she won't say so to you directly... not while there are still dishes soaking in the sink and trash needing to be taken out.
