When I started researching the Chicago music scene, one of the first sites I ran into was rap blog Fake Shore Drive. Founded by Andrew Barber in 2007, Fake Shore specializes in Chicago music, promoting local rap and R&B artists to the world. Over the years, they've covered hundreds of Chicago artists, including Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa, and Chief Keef.

Fake Shore celebrated their 10th anniversary show earlier this month (during Red Bull Sound Select's 30 Days in Chicago), and before going to the show, I reached out to Andrew, interested in a blog alliance. He graciously agreed to an interview and called me a few days after the show.

Read the transcript below for his take on why the blog has succeeded, where to spot musicians in town, and which Chicago rapper he's most proud of (you might be able to guess).

Barber: Hey, thanks for coming out to the show.

I had a lot of fun. I'd never seen any of the performers except Tee Grizzley. And it was cool to see such a diverse crowd.

Yeah, it was definitely packed; sold out. It was a very diverse crowd, and that's what we always try to do.

How was your experience at the show?

Oh, it was fantastic. I was just speechless most of the time. It was unbelievable; overwhelming; crazy dealing with the whole show and making sure everything was going smoothly, 'cause as you could see, there was a lot of moving parts. We had a lot of guests coming in and out. It was total mayhem, but it went perfect.

Looking at the line-up for the show, it's hard to find a performer who hasn't worked with Kanye. I don't want to be the national media person who puts too much focus on him, but to what extent is he a glue that has held the Chicago rap scene together, in your opinion?

I mean, everybody looks to Kanye. Everybody wants Kanye's approval. Everybody wants to work with Kanye. I mean, most of the artists had worked with Kanye at some point. Even Big Tymer$: Baby [now known as Birdman] wanted to find Kanye back in, like, 2000. That information's out there, but a lot of people don't know that. He's the guy, and he's influenced so many artists and so many people to do what they do. While he may not be here, he's still wildly influential.

Do you have an artist that you're most proud of breaking? Like, "Yes, I totally knew this person was talented, and the world has really embraced them."

That's got to be Chance. Absolutely. Chance the Rapper, no doubt. I've been a part of a lot of artists' rise, bringing them to the world first, but none greater than Chance the Rapper. Being able to be there and watch every step of the way -- everything he's achieved -- is just completely breathtaking.

He's really been able to get to the top of the heights of the music industry. He won three Grammys. He shouted me out at the Grammys. That was amazing.

I saw that!

And he always pops up. He comes to everything that we do. He's such a great guy, and I'm so proud of him.

Yeah. I want to say: I was writing in my notebook at the show, taking notes and stuff, and this one guy clapped me on the back. He was like, "You write for a blog?" I was like, "Yeah, I do, actually." He was like, "That's so cool!" And I have never experienced that in the Twin Cities. [laughs] It was a super positive moment.

Yeah, it's cool, because Chicago embraces that. Believe me, when I started, it was not a cool thing. It was not cool to be a blogger, or something that people were striving to do, or a way people saw to be in the business.

Now, you see a lot of different Chicago blogs, and there have been over the years. I'm happy to have been kind of a forefather of that.

Were you doing a lot of writing before you started Fake Shore?

Not at all. No journalistic training. I took like one journalism class when I was in college. But I just started writing. And as you write, you get better. If you do it every day for so many years, eventually you're going to get good at it. And then I started getting hired by Complex magazine to write for them. I had to teach myself to get better, and I had to practice.

When I first started Fake Shore Drive, I was reading so many other blogs. In the blog world, the writers would approach things differently. So you had more room to be creative, and not as structured or formal.

I think that was part of what made Fake Shore Drive successful, because we had our own personality.

How would you describe the personality of the blog?

The unique approach to the Chicago scene and hip-hop. Witty writing, sometimes. And we never tried to bash people. That was never our thing. If you look, you can't find a negative review or anything like that. We would just try to make coverage that would present us to the world and let the people decide.

The comments section used to be crazy. Some posts would get hundreds of comments, [and] there would be arguments in there. But that was primarily before social media. Now everything is an open forum on socials.

You say "a unique approach," and that also makes me think of the word "approachable." That seems to match up with what you're saying about the blog being a good place to hang out.

Right. Exactly.

If you had a friend that was going to fly in and they were super passionate about music, where would you take them in Chicago?

Hmm. You know what, I would probably take them to East Room. East Room is like the pulse of the city right now. I don't know if you've ever been there, but it's like a bar -- it's not a club, but more like a bar -- and it's in Logan Square, and that's where like all the action is. They have the best DJs in there playing every night; it's open until 4 a.m.

And most of the rappers and people in the scene hang out there. After our show the other night, even Birdman and Mannie Fresh [of Big Tymer$] came up there. Mannie Fresh DJed. And you're going to run into members of [rap crew] SaveMoney in there. You're going to see all the producers and the industry people behind the scenes. If you were hoping to spot somebody in Chicago, that or Soho House are probably the easiest place to find people. It's easier to get into East Room than Soho House, so I would say start there.

That's the spot. Do you know if there are any restaurants owned by musicians in Chicago?

I mean, there's Buddy Guy's. But that's a blues thing. As far as hip-hop is concerned: not really. I mean, Virgil Abloh, who works for Kanye, is a part-owner at this restaurant called Honey's. But I wouldn't say you can catch industry people there.

Virgil's not behind the counter, necessarily.

Right. We did do the Fake Shore Dive pop-up restaurant/bar for three nights in October, which was really cool. That was packed. You could find everybody. A lot of industry people popped in and out of there, from Chance the Rapper to Bump J to Twista to the Cool Kids and DJ Oreo. We had all these great people in there every day for those three days. So that was cool while it was around.

Yeah, I was reading about it and wondering, why do this pop-up? But then I realized: it enabled people be in the same space.

Yeah, just to do something different. It was the world's first hip-hop dive bar, so I can say I did that. [laughs]

You told the Chicago Reader you felt like "the Midwest, as a whole, doesn't really get the credit it deserves." Here, we're saying pretty much the same thing. Why do you think that is?

'Cause we're not on the coasts. We're the Midwest; we're looked at as just a farm land. The wholesome area. [If you ask people on the coasts], nobody's creating culture. We're just consumers.

There's so much evidence out there that's not the case. Look at all the great artists that have come from the Midwest. Not even in just hip-hop; you guys up there birthed Prince. Michael Jackson is from Gary, Indiana. From rap, you have Kanye West; Eminem; Nelly; Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. You have so many unique sounds and stylistically advanced people. Culture bending and push-forward.

All this stuff comes from the Midwest, but we've never really had our time as a movement. The South has been dominant for pretty much the last 15 years in hip-hop, which is crazy. They still will complain that they don't get the credit they deserve, but I think they've had it for the last 15 years.

We keep on pushing, and I think that adds to the blue-collar feeling of what we've got going on.

Do you spend much time listening to genres other than rap?

I'm just focused on rap. I like R&B, as well, but yeah. That's all I've ever really listened to.

What is like a day in the life for you? Are you working remotely, are you going somewhere and meeting people?

It differs; every day is a different day. Like, yesterday I was in New York doing meetings and things like that. Today, I'm running around and working, trying to play catch-up to answer emails; update the blog. So no two days are the same. Just being able to move around and be on the fly is pretty much how I operate.

Yeah. I was thinking about the partnership Fake Shore has with Red Bull Sound Select. I think that's really cool. Why do you think that partnership has worked out so well?

They get it. That's why they're such a great partner, and I love working with them. I was one of the first curators ever for Red Bull Sound Select -- it was only in, like, five cities in the time. I've been around since day one.

I was just thankful for the opportunity, because I saw the potential and I understood what they were trying to do. I think a lot of the early curators they were working with didn't see what it could become, that they could help artists and do all this other stuff we were able to do with 30 Days in LA and 30 Days in Chicago. Chance the Rapper is a Sound Select artist. [So are] G Herbo and Mick Jenkins; Saba; Smino; Tink. There's just so many artists we've brought into the program that have gone on to be very successful. It works.

I think the reason why it works is because Red Bull trusts the curators. They'll defer to me, and I'll say, "Hey, I want to do this show with XYZ acts." Almost always, they'll be like, "Sure. Whatever you want to do. We trust you." We've had great success together, so hopefully we continue to just keep pushing forward in the future.

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