2014 Schedule
Interactive: March 7–11  •  Film: March 7–15  •  Music: March 11–16

King Louie

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At the end of the day, there is only one-way to create a real musical following: Make good music. Lawless Inc./Epic Records recording artist King Louie has built his buzz from the ground up in Chicago and has transitioned to a new level on the Chicago and national rap scene.

Louie was raised in the tough streets of Chicago's southside and began rapping in 2006. Raised in the No Limit and Cash Money label era, Louie created a sound heavily influenced by dirty south rappers. Louie released his street embraced mix-tape, Boss Shit, shortly after high school. Louie followed up Boss Shit with more heat in the form of mix-tapes with Man Up, Band Up (Mubu), Hard Body, More Boss Shit and Chiraq Drillinois which have already received considerable attention from Chicago’s hip hop taste making hip hop blog, FakeShoreDrive.com. Louie was featured in a Chicago Tribune profile on the state of hip hop in Chicago entitled “In Tune With The Chicago Hip Hop Scene” which made mention about Louie: “King Louie is a prodigious talent with an utterly distinctive delivery and a knack for memorable phrases.

Although he’s been releasing music since 2007, King Louie saw his profile rise considerably when he caught the attention of Andrew Barber, who highlighted the artist on his website Fake Shore Drive…” “He had a unique look, a unique sound. ... (He) brought a level of energy I thought was lacking (in Chicago hip-hop)," Barber said.

“I’m in love with music and I just want people to hear me,” says Louie. “I’m also inspired by Rick Ross’ and Lil Wayne’s grind and the way they put out large amounts of music with mix-tapes and things of that nature.” And that's exactly what King Louie has done. Epic Records signed the King. But it was the release of the cult classic 'Drilluminati' in 2012 that sent King Louie over the edge with fans.

King Louie has also landed features with a number of artists including Kanye West, 2Chainz, Jeremih, Red Café, and has had Juicy J, Pusha T, Yo Gotti, and French Montana featured on his tracks. Louie has also opened for national artists including Mobb Deep, Future, Waka Flocka and more. He has been recently featured in XXL Mag.com (The Break), HipHopDX.com, Ozone Magazine, numerous blogs, and other major publications.

Although King Louie has a major deal- he has not stopped grinding and in 2013 followed up his cult classic mixtapes with 'Drilluminati 2'. Fans can see King Louie in the World Star Hip Hop documentary 'The Field' garnering over 19 million views and the 2014 Grammys. He was recently nominated as a songwriter on Kanye West's controversial but critically acclaimed album 'Yeezus' (Best rap song of the year- 'New Slaves').

This year at SXSW King Louie plans to satisfy the fan's and industry's curiosity and fascination by giving the people exactly what they want and that is to hear more Chicago music- Drill!

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