The Beverly Review - May 3, 2006
Local musicians put the rap on Beverly in third release
By Patrick Thomas

The lyrics of each Chi-Town Kids album are so saturated with local references that it's no challenge to figure out where they're from. But trying to figure out how seriously to take three white rappers from Beverly is another issue.

The group -- consisting of Mark Wlodarski (Swing Master M), Chris Walsh (Soul Daddy C) and Ryan O'Malley (Honey Well R) -- met almost 20 years ago when they walked into a Sutherland Elementary School kindergarten class. Fast forward to April 2006; the Chi-Town Kids have already released their third album, "Pottie Scippen," a collection of dance-fused pop, rap and piano anthems dedicated to the South Side that would make any Sutherland graduate proud -- or slightly embarrassed.

They throw out ryhmes about St. Sabina Parish Pastor the Rev. Michael Pfleger and downing shots of Jaeger, the nickname for Jaegermeister, a popular liqueur. They rap about drinking Sunny D and purple stuff, or resurrecting the Plaza movie theater. The thank-you notes on the sleeve of the CD pay homage to TV and film characters Marty McFly, Kelly Kapowski and Dr. Richard Kimble.

A St. Xavier University radio station disc jockey once mused that if the Beastie Boys and Weird Al Yankovic conceived children, they might have given birth to Wlodarksi, Walsh and O'Malley.

All silliness aside, the trio keeps making more albums, and teenage girls keep lining up for more. Just how serious the listeners, local or not, are in considering the trio as future stars in music remains to be determined, Wlodarski said.

"We kind of want to make it a mystery. We want to stay incognito, so it makes people want to check us out even more," Wlodarksi said.

From age seven to 70, fans of the Chi-Town kids include children and grandparents, all attracted by their youthful energy.

"People come up to me all the time and tell me, 'My little cousin love you.' They might be 7, 8, 9 [years old]," Wlodarski said. "The melodies of the songs, the way the beats are put together, kids just want to dance around."

While most hip-hop artists use a hard drum and bass line, the Chi-Town Kids rely heavily on Walsh's talent on the keyboard. Walsh, a computer programmer for JP Morgan Chase by day, also plays the keys for a 13-piece calypso band called Lord Mike's Dirty Calypsonians with Beverly native Pat Muldoon.

Wlodarksi and O'Malley might pen the lyrics, but Walsh is the brains of the operation and knows his way around the studio. He has been playing the piano since he was 5, learned the drums on his own, played the tuba in the Br. Rice High School band and picked up the guitar around the same time and taught it to Wlodarski.

Walk said the quality of the group's latest album is the best of their efforts, mainly because the recording studio went from Wlodarski's bedroom A-track system to Walsh's computer.

"If you hear the quality, it [can be interpreted as] serious. But if you hear the content, and it's actually like 'What the hell is this?' It leaves people perplexed and saying, 'What are you trying to do here?'" Walsh said.

The content reflects an exuberant pride and youthful energy for their beloved sports teams and Beverly home.

Their songs make reference to Chatham Rug, Rainbow Cone, Ridge Beverly Little League, Adrianna Furs and jumping into Lake Michigan to skinny dip with Chicagoans Jenny McCarthy and Scotty Pippen.

Anything is a possibility with the imagination of the Chi-Town Kids.

"Every other hip-hop artist, you know where they're from. You never hear anyone say anything about 103rd and Western. I always hope that someone makes it from the South Side and I turn the radio on and hear them shout out something about Janson's [Drive-in], Western Avenue and Carlton Fisk," Wlodarksi said.

They spit a rhyme out about throwing pennies out car windows and fighting snakes. Other times they are dissin' the rest of the community's elementary schools while boasting about their Sutherland almamater. Wlodarksi said their lyrics are merely "good-natured ribbing." There are no existential messages, he assured. What listeners hear is what they get.

"We try to make the songs as weird as possible," said Wlodarski, a carpenter and former longtime employee at Ridge Park.

The group's record label, "Table Cat Records," is named in honor of Wlodarski's dead cat, Walsh said.

"Every group has to have a record label," Walsh said. "Mark's old cat used to sit on his dining room table, so we nominated him to be the owner of our record label."

All three of the 24-year olds take part in the vocals. When the microphone is passed to O'Malley, a branch manager for Wells Fargo Financial who is described as the comic relief of the group, he uses a voice that reminds Wlodarski of "Mr. Ed dressed like a clown."

Walsh said the group's music is for everyone. The fun they have making it is intended to spill over to their fan base.

"We basically try to make the songs as catchy as possible. There is a pop element to them, but we're also coming up with obscure references from our past, our friends or the neighborhood. These are songs that only our generation can understand."

However, they're finding that a younger generation is also taking notice, Wlodarski said.

"We tried to make ["Pottie Scippen"] for more mass appeal, more singing, more harmonies and more dance. We wanted to make it more appealing and not just rap and hip-hop," he said.

The group said they plan to dub an initial 500 "Pottie Scippen" CDs, but their new release can be downloaded at their website, chitownkids.com.


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