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Saba Breaks Down “Few Good Things”: “We’re Just Getting Started”

Written by on May 26, 2022

After touring in support of acclaimed album Few Goods Things, Chicago independent rapper Saba stopped by the Vocalo studios Thursday morning to sit down with Bekoe.

Morgan Ciocca/Vocalo, Chicago Public Media

Independent rapper and member of Pivot Gang collective Saba has been making a name for himself in the Chicago music scene and beyond since before even his feature on Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap in 2013. Fast-forward nine years, Saba’s worked alongside artists like Noname, Smino, Mick Jenkins and Denzel Curry, released three full-length albums and played shows on 11 tours. His most recent “Back Home” tour, a headliner in support of album Few Good Things, stopped in Chicago on May 5 at the Aragon Ballroom.

RELATED: SABA ON FEW GOOD THINGS: “OUR CULTURE IS NOT CLICKBAIT”

Released Feb. 4, Few Goods Things is Saba’s third studio album and his first full-length release since Care For Me in 2018. Few Good Things was released with the intention of exploring a full spectrum of human emotion — the traumas he and the other members of Pivot Gang have experienced, but also life’s joys and triumphs.

Morgan Ciocca/Vocalo, Chicago Public Media

Back in the Vocalo studios for the first time since 2017, he sat across from on-air host Bekoe Thursday morning. The two discussed live on-air what it meant to him to perform in front of thousands in his hometown at the Aragon Ballroom. During the performance, Saba expressed how meeting goals like headlining the Aragon isn’t a reality for artists who, like him, are from Chicago’s West Side. 

“Being on that stage, man, it was like… it just felt like a ‘We did this’ moment, you know?” he tells Bekoe. “We’re just getting started… that’s the finish line until you get there, and then it’s like, ‘Alright, then… there’s a new finish line, there’s a new goal post.’”

Morgan Ciocca/Vocalo, Chicago Public Media

The two also broke down the making of Few Good Things, Pivot Gang’s origins, the ways emotional transparency and honesty connects with listeners and the role Chicago artists play in giving back to their communities. Listen and watch their conversation below…


Interview and audio production by Bekoe

Video by Rakim Winfert

Introduction and photography by Morgan Ciocca

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