From the Lens to the Mic: 75’s Double Exposure of Chicago’s Creative Landscape

Being introduced to the TGF audience is a new up and coming artist named 75. While very new to the music scene, 75 isn’t a stranger to the spotlight in Chicago one bit. 75 has made a name for himself as one of the most popular photographers in Chicago under the other alias “DShootUpDaScene.” It’s not often that you find someone who is very widely known in the city deciding to change their name as they dive into other lanes. 75 had a very great response when asked about the change, he said “ With 75, I feel like it’s a real identity towards where I’m from and a number that really defines me more than a name could. 75 comes from 75th street, where I grew up and still call home, I even got it tatted on me. DShootUpDaScene belongs to the camera I feel like, but I don’t think it fit me for an artist name on the music side.” That’s when I knew 75 was taking his new journey into the music scene seriously.

75 dropped his seven song ep on December 29th, 2023 and it has a runtime of about 15 minutes. Of those seven songs, we have two features, 500 is featured on Film Breakdown and icyybands is featured on Next to Me. To describe the themes and sound that 75 has, one can say he’s more of a lyrical rapper as he gives a lot of meaning and heartfelt experiences into his lyrics. The production on the project is very harmonious with some samples on a few songs while giving a slight hint of a club mix. This can be heard in songs like Trust Me Not and Family Feud.

With 75’s photography background and being around so many artists it isn’t a surprise that those experiences helped with how he came about with his sound because he doesn’t sound like a new artist, he sounds like he has been making music for some time now.