Fake Shore Drive

Fake Shore Drive is a music blog and media outlet that originated in Chicago in October 2007. Initially, it aimed to highlight the city's hip-hop and R&B artists, but by February 2013, it had broadened its coverage to include the urban music scene across the entire Midwest. The blog was founded by Andrew Barber, who recognized a gap in the representation of Chicago's music and artists on national platforms. In a 2013 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Barber expressed, “We really just want to get people to see local talent. I felt like there were a lot of missing parts to the Chicago hip-hop scene — there was a whole story not being told.” Fake Shore Drive has played a crucial role in the emergence of Chicago's hip-hop community, contributing to the careers of notable artists such as Chance The Rapper, Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Vic Mensa, Tink, and Mick Jenkins. Many of these talents have gone on to secure significant record deals and generate substantial income. The main objective of Fake Shore Drive is to elevate the Midwest’s music scene and bring it into the national spotlight. In 2014, Barber shared with Groupon, “In my opinion, the Midwest is way more underserved and has had way less of a movement than any other region. Less than the West Coast, less than the East Coast, and definitely less than the South, which has been running radio for the past 10–12 years... I always wanted to work in the [hip-hop] business in some capacity, but being in Chicago—being in the Midwest—there’s not a lot of opportunity. So with Fake Shore Drive, I wanted to create an outlet for what was happening locally."