Toward the end of 2010 an R&B singer asked Jeremiah Chrome, then known in Chicago’s underground electronic-music scene for his Italo-disco revival group Clique Talk, about making some beats. An unabashed R&B fan, Chrome said yes, then drafted Brandon Boom—even more of an R&B fan—to help. A week later they met with the singer to play him what they’d done so far—and thus ended their producer-client relationship. The R&B singer had actually wanted Italo-disco beats. “I’d done Clique Talk for years,” Chrome says, “so I was a little over doing that.” The duo decided to keep making music sans the vocalist, and they dubbed themselves The-Drum—a nod to R&B heavyweight Terius “The-Dream” Nash.
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If it’s a weird time for pop music, then it’s a good time for musicians interested in exploiting weirdness. The-Drum has benefited from friendships with fellow Chicago-born duos Supreme Cuts and Sich Mang, who add psychedelic twists to, respectively, hip-hop and footwork beats—and both of whom have found success among tastemaking listeners who keep up on the acts cosigned by trendy streetwear labels.
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Fall Arts Calendar: An event for each of the season’s 80 days
