Coolout Chris

Bio

Producer, DJ, Emcee, "Coolout Chris" has been rocking Chicago since he was 18-years old and formed the 90’s era rap group Spalaney’s, with his friends Riff-Raff, Snap, and Tony Baines. For the next several years the group, performed widely and toured the US for the next 5 years, including showcases for Giant/Warner Bros., E.M.I., and Def Jam. They were also featured at the A.S.C.A.P Music showcase in Los Angeles, on tour with DJ Quik, and met and performed for Prince’s at his former nightclub Glam Slam in Minneapolis. Their ’94 song ‘Universal Language’ was featured on the now classic compilation “Talent Fest” produced by Beathole Records, the first nationally distributed Chicago hip-hop compilation.

Coolout later took his experience as a performer-producer-lyricist and teamed up with Amina, a hometown emcee/poet who was by this time, beginning to organize local artist events. Together they would form Urbanized Music (a production & songwriting duo), he would also go on to form his production company BeatQuarters.

As engaged in civic and community affairs, he is co-founder of Chicago Hip-Hop Initiative, a not-for profit hip-hop arts organization. In 2003 C.H.I. presented and championed the passage of a resolution to declare July as the official Chicago Hip-Hop Heritage month. In 2010 he spent 2 weeks in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) as part of a contingency of US Cultural Envoys conducting workshops, and recording local artists around the country, promoting hip-hop as a tool for creative self expression

Coolout’s music has been featured on radio, television, film, various websites, and podcasts. He has worked with many notable independent artists both in the US and abroad, including poet and educator Kevin Coval, L.E.G.A.C.Y. (Justus League), Maintain (Waste Management Records) Poetree (‘Get On Point’, featuring Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.), Idris Goodwin, Profound, O.N.E. Jones, Presence, Phillip Morris, and many others. He has collaborated internationally with artists from Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), producing and releasing a 4-song ep with Abidjan based rapper Noble MC, and currently producing a full length album due out in this year. He has also produced songs for rappers Ezzdean, who dually represents Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, and Centimett who is from Ghana, but is currently in France, as well as produced and mastered the Cote d’Ivoire Hip-Hop Initiative’s ‘Unity Album’ which was recorded by Ivorian artists while their country was embroiled in civil war.

Coolout is currently touring and promoting his latest cd release UMAC: Urbanized Music, Amina & Chris, working on several studio projects and collaborating with artists around the world, and continues to mentor new artists and producers.