By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Sep 16, 2025

Your Favorite Rapper's Favorite Jazz Label (Probably)

A brief introduction to International Anthem Recording Company and its Chicago-centric sonics.

Chicago Underground Duo. Photo credit: Mikel Patrick Avery

Over the weekend, I headed out into the brisk night to catch avant-jazz act Chicago Underground Duo at the Brooklyn multi-purpose venue Public Records. Now nearly three decades into their collaborative career as a versatile, shapeshifting unit, founding members Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor were in town commemorating the release of their latest album Hyperglyph with an intimate concert focused on its contents.

For those whose notions of jazz start with Blue Note staples and end with Golden Age hip-hop samples, the sounds coming out of these two middle-aged men would have fascinated or bewildered them, with cornet blasts and electronic squelches jibing alongside dizzying drum work and sonorous mbira tones. Still, as André 3000's pivot from Atlanta rap to freewheeling flute illuminated to Outkast fans, the state of the genre couldn't be more sonically fluid. And for those who turned on and tuned in to his New Blue Sun, there are few catalogs worth diving into quite like that of the International Anthem Recording Company.

Though formally a Chicago outfit, the imprint extends its roster remit beyond that city's limits to encompass artists like hip-hop poet Saul Williams, English multi-instrumentalist Alabaster DePlume, and the Los Angeles-based ex-pat Jeff Parker (and his exquisite ETA IVtet). Its spiritual center, however, holds fast in the Midwest, with adventurous area jazzbos and composers like Damon Locks, Ben LaMar Gay, Macie Stewart, and the aforementioned Chicago Underground Duo helping to fill the ranks.

While the label's discography runs deep, befitting its decade-plus existence, its 2025 offerings present enticing entry points and opportunities for listener exploration. With more new releases by Makaya McCraven, Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet, The Smile), and post-rock legends Tortoise on the imminent horizon, now is a great time to get acclimated to what International Anthem is all about. Below, you'll find some handy highlights...

Catch up on prior episodes before the season premiere this Fall.

Damon Locks, List Of Demands

Trenchant spoken word, rigorous collage construction, and touches of turntablism characterize this Chicago multi-disciplinarian's decarcerally minded album, its twisty and sometimes jarring path drawing from a broad swath of Black music history and counter culture. (buy it / stream it)

Jeff Parker, The New Breed (IA11 Edition)

On this expanded reissue of the Tortoise member's 2016 solo effort, the renowned guitarist and producer comes as close as ever to achieving his wildest Madlib dreams, its rhythmic techniques interwoven with live performances that seem to answer an earlier hip-hop era's inherent jazz questions. (buy it / stream it)

Saul Williams Meets Carlos Niño & Friends, ...at Treepeople

The seismically significant hip-hop poet joins forces with André 3000's New Blue Sun co-producer (a prolific and profound artist in his own right) for a live-and-direct history lesson set to immersive ambient peace jazz as radical as its textual contents. (buy it / stream it)

Chicago Underground Duo, Hyperglyph

Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor, both staples of their city's free jazz movement for decades, return to their most minimal core with this electro-acoustic outing that thumbs its nose at genre by wondrously blending sizzling synth loops, brassy outbursts, and feats of percussive might at will. (buy it / stream it)

Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson & Sam Wilkes, Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes

Combining two participants from Los Angeles avant act SML with one of Sam Gendel's most reliable collaborators, this live-conceived series of songs find the bespoke trio forming electric guitar, alto saxophone, and electric bass into remarkable shared shapes. (buy it / stream it).