Chester Watson + Elaquent – München, Milla

In the organizer's words:

Chester Watson + Elaquent

24.02.2025
Munich, Milla

Admission: 19.00 hrs
Start: 20.00 hrs

Chester Watson

The internet distorts our sense of time in a strange way. When Chester Watson debuted in the mid-2010s with wordy, technically precise music indebted to MF DOOM, Earl Sweatshirt and lesser-known artists from the stratosphere and blogosphere, it was as if he was simultaneously coming from the past and the future. Entrepreneurial fans reacted accordingly. Before he was old enough to legally drink alcohol, there were "Best Of", rarities compilations and .zip files floating through the ether like secret handshakes. Whenever industry prospectors pegged him as the next big star, he'd disappear back underground, only to reappear sharper, leaner and stranger. Though he's only 27 years old, the St. Louis-born rapper and producer, who grew up between that city, Georgia and Florida, has seen enough for several lifetimes - and raps like he's tapped into many more. But after a few years of ups, downs and traumatic odysseys, he was able to look straight into the abyss and conquer it. His renewed confidence was evident on "Fish Don't Climb Trees", the largely self-produced album from 2023, which reaffirmed him as one of rap's great auteurs.

Elaquent

Elaquent has spent this decade developing his own unique style, internalizing the sounds of great producers like J Dilla and DJ Premier, but altering and changing them to make his voice inimitable. With an extensive catalog that includes dozens of projects and countless remixes, Elaquent has become one of beat music's most compelling figures - despite living thousands of miles away from its epicenter in Los Angeles. As Noisey once pointed out, he was pivotal in emphasizing beat music's diverse influences, pushing the genre into new, previously unthinkable realms and helping to build a vibrant beat music scene in Toronto.