Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/753330
As a genre defined largely by spectacle, hip-hop is fodder exemplar for social media. Matt Marzahl is proof positive: With crisp candids of Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, and other en-vogue emcees, the 25-year-old Richmond, Illinois native's work is an addictive, insider look at contemporary rap royalty. Initially forging industry inroads by producing content for Beats by Dre on behalf of Wicker Park-based retailer RSVP Gallery, the Bucktown resident has since transported his 33,000-plus Instagram followers backstage to Lollapalooza, Sean Combs's Bad Boy reunion tour, and more of music's most titanic stages—all without the price of admission. MATT MARZAHL | THE HIP-HOP HEAD @multimarz Tool of the trade: Sony a7. Words of wisdom: "Shoot everything. Be ready for a lot of blurry and unusable shots. Once you sift through those, you're going to come across moments where the spotlight, the artist, and the shot all line up perfectly." The approach: "I'll catch myself shooting far enough away to see what the artist is wearing. What's the outfit? Are we hanging out? Getting ready to [go] to the club? I want to be able to tell a story with one picture."Chicago scene: "Chicago has its own original vibe because the city never associated with East or West Coast rap, so the artists had to find their own lane in the industry." Favorite festival: "Lollapalooza is awesome because it combines so many different things: The landscape of the city, the backgrounds of the huge festival crowds, and all the different artists." Instagram hack: "Posting portrait-cropped pictures rather than square. The larger picture fills the phone screen and usually means more people will stop and look." For Matt Marzahl's Chicago favorites, visit michiganavemag.com . opposite page, clockwise from top left: Jenn Lake's vibrant Instagram feed pops with fun, fashionable images like a flamingo mural on Ohio Street; Wicker Park restaurant Mahalo ("Neon lights get me every time"); a wall in East London ("Travel is one of my main sources of inspiration, and this is one of my all-time favorites"); and a bold-and-gold pair of shoes by Tory Burch. this page, clockwise from top left: Whether sweaty clubs or major festivals like Lollapalooza, Matt Marzahl's images bring Chicago's hip-hop scene to thumpingly vivid life. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF @MULTIMARZ MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 123