Brian Fresco's Major Accomplishments

If you’re not obsessed with Brian Fresco by now, then you will be after one listen to his most recent mixtape, “Casanova.” For avid followers of Chicago hip-hop and rap, the hard-to-miss Brian Fresco is on the rise, and nothing can get in his way.

Fresco, whose real name is Brian Allen, was crucial to the formation of rising Chicago music collective Savemoney. With the help of friends and fellow musicians Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa, Towkio and Kami, Fresco has added to a new wave of intellectual yet hard-hitting Chicago rap music. In a tight-knit music community that includes Chance the Rapper with his inspiring gospel, the justice-seeking Vic Mensa and the dance-party ready Towkio, Fresco stands out with a style that’s much harder to pin

Wells projects, and the Harold Ickes projects on the Near South Side.

“I grew up in these projects and had to learn things at an earlier age than most other kids. I saw things most others don’t necessarily have to see,” Fresco said. “Whether it was making sure I was safe or didn’t go hungry, it was always about the hustle.”

Fresco first discovered music as a fourth grader at Chicago’s Beasley Academic Center. The first hip-hop album he ever obsessed over was Eminem’s 2002 classic, “The Eminem Show.”
Jena Snelling + Alex Levitt
Brian Fresco.

“That album is one of the reasons I started rapping,” Fresco said. “As a kid, my parents liked all kinds ofmusic, especially R&B and funk, so I take influences into my own work from all genres and all spectrums in the music

I had a kid, I had also moved out of my parents’ house, and I got back into the street life too much,” Fresco said. “Itwas just too easy. The money was too easy.”

Although things weren’t looking great for Fresco, he received a call in mid-2014 from long-time Chicago collaborator and friend MC Tree. The two quickly got together in the studio and created what would become Fresco’s second mixtape, “SoulMoney.”

“MC Tree had sparked a creative energy in me that was sitting under the surface for a long time, and I was thankful for that,” Fresco said.

Although supporting his child remained stressful, Fresco decided to continue focusing on music. With his most recent release, “Casanova,” Fresco wanted to get out of his comfort zone creatively. The Savemoney rapper premiered the first single from the mixtape, “Higher,” on June 28 on the website of The Fader, a New York-based music magazine. He told the website, “I wanted to try something musically I’ve never done before with my homie Trevor, and despite one of my friends telling me my heart wasn’t in it, I still knew this song was a