Ric Wilson

Ric Wilson, best recognized for his lively rhymes, might equally register as an off-kilter R&B or iconoclastic pop performer. The South Side Chicago native, anchored in lived experience and consistently optimistic, found momentum via the funk/house/bachata/rock fusion “Soul Bounce” (2016) and has sustained an unpredictable momentum across a consistent stream of singles and EPs such as Banba (2018) and the Terrace Martin-produced They Call Me Disco (2020). One line from the latter distills his method: “We don’t chase the wave -- we make the wave.”

Ric Wilson absorbed music and activism early on as a youthful member of Chicago’s historic Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. Poetry work with Young Chicago Authors later shaped his approach to writing. His first releases, the Penny Raps mixtape and The Sun Was Out EP, surfaced in 2015, at which time community efforts already occupied much of his attention. The vigorous “Soul Bounce” marked a further pivot in 2016, after which he broadened his range while cultivating a loyal audience. Between guest spots and additional standalone tracks, he put out the EPs Negrow Disco (with an intro from Chuck D) and Banba during 2017 and 2018. Near the decade’s end Wilson launched his own imprint, Free Disco, and teamed with Terrace Martin on the 2020 EP They Call Me Disco. The low-slung liberation anthem “Fight Like Ida B & Marsha P” followed soon after.