Feds took a preschool teacher. In front of students.

Preschool Teacher Taken Away in Front of Students

A teacher was pulled out of Rayito de Sol, a Spanish-immersion preschool in North Center, and taken away by federal agents Wednesday. The detainment took place in front of parents and children after agents followed the woman inside from her parked car. [Instagram: Monica Eng]

Updates From the Federal Courthouse

Testimony continued Wednesday in a high-stakes court battle over federal agents’ aggressive treatment of protesters and journalists throughout “Operation Midway Blitz.” In a closed-door, under-oath deposition, Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino instructed officers to “go hard” on protestors, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers. [Sun-Times]

Meanwhile, in a separate case, federal Judge Robert Gettleman promised some “relief” — soon — for those held at the ICE facility in Broadview. Gettleman oversaw a hearing over alleged “unnecessarily cruel” conditions at the detainment center. [Block Club]

CPD Overspent By $501M Since 2019

The Chicago Police Department overspent its approved budget five of the last six years, costing Chicago taxpayers an additional $501.2 million. CPD is set to exceed its annual budget again this year, too. [WTTW]

Want the ‘L’ Gold Crown? Take the CTA Challenge.

Earlier this year, Anna Lee Ackerman attempted the CTA ‘L’ Challenge, documenting her journey on TikTok. The goal was to hit every CTA train stop as fast as possible. On today’s episode, Ackerman explains her trip, why it’s worth doing — and definitively ranks the city’s train lines. [City Cast Chicago 🎧]

At DePaul University, Chicago rapper femdot is known as Professor Femi Adigun. He teaches “Chicago Culture Through Hip Hop” and recently sat down with City Cast Chicago to trace our city’s history through rap music.

Class is in session!

Who Built Chicago's Rap Scene?

According to femdot, people really started paying attention to Chicago as a hip-hop epicenter during the 2010s. But the city’s held a strong place in the scene since the ‘90s thanks to local pioneers like:

• Da Brat
• Infamous Syndicate
• Do Or Die
• Twista
• Common
• No I.D.

Then, enter Kanye West (or Ye): the larger-than-life figure who really put Chicago on the rap map around 2004. At DePaul, femdot’s syllabus begins with the emergence of Kanye, who grew up around South Shore and Oak Lawn. From there, touchstones include Kanye’s “Late Registration” and “Food & Liquor” by Lupe Fiasco.

Segregation in Everything

The early aughts also saw the tearing down of public housing projects like the Robert Taylor and Ida B. Wells homes, displacing Black Chicagoans and physically shifting hip-hop culture.

“ Chicago being such a segregated city … allows every artist to be very specific because you can be 10 blocks away from each other and live in a whole different world or not interact with each other at all,” femdot says.

He tells his students often: “Chance, [G Herbo], and Ye all have family houses on 79th Street. But those are three completely different 79th streets.”

The Blog Era and Drill

Styles get even more hyper-specific zooming into the post-Kanye blog era of the 2010s. Suddenly, rap was seen as a potential career. Wanting to be the next Kanye, artists recorded music at home and pushed it out on early social media platforms. Often, this work was soulful and heavily sampled.

Defining mixtapes of the era include:

• “Acid Rap” by Chance the Rapper
• “Innanetape” by Vic Mensa
• “The Waters” by Mick Jenkins
• “Winter’s Diary” by Tink

Somewhat simultaneously, drill music emerged in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Although the term “drill” is associated with violence, as femdot explains, it came to represent movement more generally:

“If I’m out, and two girls hit my homies, and it’s ‘Yo slide, it’s a two-on-two,’ that’s a drill. Oh, we finna play basketball today and we finna kick it. It’s a drill. Mom brought totino rolls today. It’s a drill.”

The earliest recorded instance of “drill” came in 2009 from Pac-Man. Other pioneers include:

• Boss Woo
• King Louie
• DJ KENN AON
• Young Chop
• DJ L

These and other artists make up femdot's ideal playlist, with recs spanning 30 years 👇

Every week, we highlight local shoutouts from City Cast Chicago Neighbors. Want to share your own? Become a Neighbor today.

• Today, Sarah R. is shouting out First Aid Comics in Hyde Park and Little Italy: “I've been organizing board games and tabletop RPGs for the community in Hyde Park and First Aid Comics has been a great help!”