It's really rare that you meet a rapper before you meet him, according to the effervescent Chicago rapper, who is developing an audience by being something different than his predecessors. But the point is that his hip-hop approach is as counterintuitive, and if anything, his approach to music is even more successful.
To invest in Tobi Lou's fanship, it's to embrace a slew of eccentric artifacts from his quasi- fantasy world. In 2018, Tobi was joined by St. Louis rapper Smino in his video for "," a dazzling ode to Tobi's youth. The video includes cameos from actors like the Rugrats and Kanye West's Takashi Murakami-designed Dropout Bear mascot, which highlights the colorful oeuvre he's
Tobi expanded his saturated fantasyland through singles such as the Adventure Time favorite "Buff Baby" and with events such as the 2019 release. Both got into overdrive with the recent release of Non-Perishable in March, which included a three-project suite that expanded the canon, and bringing it to the realm of hyperreal live-action.
'I think Live On Ice was a big show and tell,' says a mid-afternoon Zoom call to discuss Non-Perishable's upcoming programs. 'It's a lot of disgrace and it's just a lot of grief,' says the manager. 'It's a real enormous amount of frustration,' says one expert. 'I've already divided three boxes of 10 to 12 tracks in this way.'
Those three boxes are Non-Perishable, April Showers, which will be released later this week, and Parrish Blue, each describing a different stage of the process of rebuilding and healing from the soul-shattering wounds of previous years. "And then, Parrish Blue is just chaos at its height. And it's also chaos at its height, knowing this is who I am and not being afraid to be that. I believe Non-Perishable just offered me the opportunity to get out of
Tobi Lou's journey to music professionally was both roundabout and unintentional. He began teaching baseball even before suffering a career-ending injury. From then on, he focused everything on making and releasing music independently an arrangement that takes the same skill, commitment, time, and effort.
Being independent provides him a level of control and freedom that is often out of reach for his contemporaries on major labels. For one thing, Glassface has released 11 videos so far, all with the help of his long-time collaborator Glassface, who has previously been a major component of Tobi Lou's experience. Glassface is probably as adept as anyone in his quest to develop Tobi's cover art and shooting his clips, as well as contributing musically behind the scenes.
