AirGo

Brendan Shiller is fighting. He is one of the founders of the West Side Justice Center, and is a co-partner in the law firm Shiller Preyar LLC, serving the needs and legal battles of the divested from and disenfranchised across the city. He is the lead attorney for the #NoCopAcademy Campaign, which was rumbling through City Hall last week in opposition to the $95 million proposed project to be bui...

Matt Muse is a rapper, producer and YCA teaching artist who's working hard. Constantly performing on stages across the city and on the road, his work ethic and confident baritone has opened doors as he continues to push his craft and career. His new project, Nappy Talk, is coming ASAP–he had a listening party this past week at YCA. Recorded live 5/24/18 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music on this week...

This week's episode is the product of a partnership between your friendly neighborhood producers here at AirGo and Real Chi Youth, the newsroom at Free Spirit Media, a nonprofit organization based in North Lawndale. We worked with this wonderful squad of reporters between 20 and 25 years old to build a new, humanizing, deep dive into the stories they were covering, bringing subject-to-subject dial...

Hilda Franco, in this moment, is the culmination of every day, month, and year she has grown through up to this point–as are we all. She wants to make sure we don't forget that. The educator, scholar, facilitator, and culture worker focuses on the pervasiveness and impact of adultism in our schools, communities, policies, and culture-at-large. A former staff member at the Chicago Freedom School, R...

Dometi Pongo is a media-maker, journalist, host, and producer whose work is grounded in the stories, perspectives, and events of our city. Sound familiar? He's an anchor and reporter for WGN Radio, the host of the ChiPedia and Brainstorm with Dometi podcasts, and has created media work with Chicago's Urban League, Donda's House, WTTW, WYCC, and many other platforms. He's the cofounder of The Artis...

AirGo gets cooking with Pivot emcee and gem of a human MfnMelo. The rapper's baritone echoes across some of the city's best tracks from the last year, including a gang of hits on his project Melodramatics, which dropped last October. He also hosts the hilarious and very informative Cooking with Mfn cooking show. Recorded live 4/28/18 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Rollin' - @Mfnmelo Buck...

Lulu Be's bounce echoes continents. The rapper layers rhythms from across diaspora with hyper-referential and indubitably fun raps that reverberate self-confidence and self-determination. The first generation Ethiopian American Chicago native put out the make-you-move bop Lululand last fall. Recorded 4/3/18 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Rude Tings - @lulubomb Raindance - @lulubomb Fiya M...

You know that line that naysayers always say to activists? About how "real change happens from within the system?" Well, Brandon Johnson is about to find out. The longtime educator and centerpiece organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union recently won the Democratic primary for the Cook County Commissioner of the 1st District, and will be running unopposed in the general election. His new jurisdic...

AmbI Lyrics has brought all the pieces together, and is ready to share. The St. Louisian DJ, producer, and certified Pivoter just dropped Study Hall, a wonderful project with some certified bops with a super dope squad of collaborators including Via Rosa, Joseph Chilliams, Nosidam, Lamont Anderson, Sean Deaux, theMIND, Smino, Saba, and Jean Deaux. She pops by a couple days before her upcoming Afte...

AirGo digs deep in the vaults for #GoBack, a series of interviews Daniel did between 2011 and 2014 with some of hip hop's best. Originally aired on KDIC-FM, Damon and Daniel's college radio station, we dust off the conversations and bring them to you. On this episode, from all the way back in 2013, Chance the Rapper. Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social...

Singer, drummer, and songwriter Luke Titus is just trying to flow. As a percussionist, he has kept the pocket for brilliant Chicagoans like Noname, Akenya and Ravyn Lenae. He released his debut project, Aside of Love, last year, and will be opening for Ravyn on her upcoming Crush tour. Recorded 2/20/18 in Chicago Music from this week's show: U (feat. @ravynlenae) - @luke-titus Pink - @luke-titus R...

Maceo Haymes swings, growls, and whines like no other voice in Chicago. He's the soul of Chicago soul band The O'My's, and has collaborated with damn near any Chicago rapper, singer, and musician you rock with. A stalwart of the Chicago music scene, Maceo swings by to talk sound, color, art, and more. Recorded 3/15/18 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: These Days (feat. @the-om...

Daniel and Damon catch their breath and take some time to check in. The convo bounces around from parents, to love, to growth, to much more. You get a guest every week–we should be enough for ya. Recorded 3/5/18 in Chicago Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - conta...

The Burns Twins glint. The duo stands in the midst of much of the most engaging, shining, exciting art echoing through Chicago's music scene, bringing their trumpet, drums, and production to collaborations with an impressive cross-section of Chicago's next wave. They most recently put out the first in a series of EPs with Bedows and Elton Aura entitled Sun Shower, which is an absolute banger, and...

Shellyne Rodriguez is a badass visual artist, organizer, and Bronxite. She organizes with Take Back the Bronx, a collective of creators and citizens fighting gentrification, and has visual art featured all over the city. Her visuals remix and reimagine the material representations of community, loss, and false hope into collage and sculpture, connected yet levitating. She works with the Museum of...

AirGo had the honor of cohosting the Our Liberation Summit, a convening at Sarah Lawrence College. We conducted 10 interviews with presenters, producers, and participants, seizing this shared moment to bring their voices and ideas beyond the confines of the campus. This episode contains a few of their stories–you can hear all of the episodes on our soundcloud. Thanks to Natalie Gross and Cody Ross...

AirGo digs deep in the vaults for #GoBack, a series of interviews Daniel did between 2011 and 2014 with some of hip hop's best. Originally aired on KDIC-FM, Damon and Daniel's college radio station, we dust off the conversations and bring them to you. First up, Kendrick Lamar in 2013. Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social Find us live! - www.respairmedia...

Bria Royal is a mythmaker. The artist, media journalist, organizer, and spacemaker creates worlds through comics, animation, and paintings that reimagine the relationships between liberation, the natural world, gender, mental health, technology, and more. She works for the youth media and journalism nonprofit Free Spirit Media, and is a member of Chicago-based organizations The People's Response T...

Ashley Ray is open. The comedian, writer, and cultural critic shares the stories, questions, insecurities, and challenges many of us struggle to ask about relationships, monogamy, and sexuality, and spins them hilariously toward a liberatory perspective. In addition to doing standup all over Chicago, she writes about television for the Onion, and has a day job where she spins your public data into...

Tanji Harper's light shines real bright. An OG of Chicago's creative community, she is one of the most genuine, kind, and creative mentors and communal creators in the city. She is the Artistic Director of the Happiness Club, an all-ages youth dance crew that operates as a family and lights up stages all over the Chi. She's also the Founder of Blu Rhythm Collective, a squad remixing the theatrical...

Dewayne Perkins is bubbly as hell. The actor, comic, and writer is Chicago born and bred, and has come up through the city's comedy farm system–he's an alum of the iO and of Second City, where he featured as part of their touring company. He recently was a cast member on MTV's Wildin' Out, and has a hilarious web series through OpenTV called Starving Artists. Recorded live 1/4/17 at WHPK 88.5FM in...

AirGo isn't just all talk! Listen to the latest edition of the Cottage Groove DJ mix series, a brand new #ChicagoSoCold mix featuring a gang of new Chicago artists who are poised to explode in 2018. Listen to all of the mixes by AirGo's own DJ Empathy aka Daniel at https://soundcloud.com/airgoradio/sets/cottage-groove-mixes Songs in this mix: Flaws - @JubaJate x Dezrielle Juanye Drain You - @melom...

This week's guest probably gotten you to stop scrolling before, which is no small feat. Korporate is the mastermind behind Chicago Be Like, a hilarious video series showcasing the absurdity of the city's lingo and culture, from juking in parking lots to hitting a stain at the bus stop. He's also a very dope rapper, and speaks in CPS classrooms across the city. Recorded 12/12/17 in Chicago Music fr...

Quite simply, Femdot raps his ass off. The up-and-coming rapper has gathered a whole bunch of buzz over the last couple years, performing on stages across the city, and has been featured on Fake Shore Drive and Pigeons & Planes. He's also rocking his way from one lab to another as a student at DePaul, where he studies Biological Sciences.  Recorded live 12/21 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music fr...

Glenance Green shades in the nuances and contours through her work as a poet, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, and activist. She directs A G Thing, a creative performance agency, and is also the creator of Melanin Voices, a performance collective series of poetry and live literature purposed to showcase the local, unsung voices in literature and highlight the narratives illuminated from their writi...