Who is Chris Scholar? A question he seems to truly embrace that in the URL to his official website. Also, a question I was somewhat ashamed I had to ask in 2019. As an avid supporter of all things Richmond, Virginia, especially the art and music birthed here, I’d like to think I was pretty up to date on who’s who in the city. I mean that is the whole purpose of this site! However, last night I learned two very important lessons. One: I should probably be more active on the HLX social media pages and Two: There is still so much great talent out there in the Richmond area alone that I have no idea about.
Looking through Twitter I saw a page that we follow retweet a clip of a short visual for Chris Scholar’s song ‘Honest Tea.’ The caption was simple. Directing the people to go stream the track on Spotify. However the visual was amazing! It appears to be just a promotional video. I searched high and low for a full-length version and couldn’t find it. Still somewhat holding out hope that this was just a preview of a full video to come later. If a full video does appear, I will definitely post it to the site without hesitation.
Outside of those main tracks, I was also pleased to find two full mixtapes. One entitled “Who is Chris Scholar?” and another called “#PersonalUseOnly”. I, of course, started with “Who is Chris Scholar?” being that seems to be a common theme throughout the imagery he is creating. It was honestly refreshing. Maybe its just me, but I haven’t heard a MIXTAPE mixtape in a while. Taking other people’s beats and flipping them. Nowadays the lines between albums and mixtapes are somewhat blurred. To hear that “PersonalUseOnly” was a more traditional mixtape as well was even better. His song selection on both fit well throughout both projects. It was also a shock to hear that he not only sings but also raps. Being that the first few things I heard from him were definitely more R&B heavy it was a pleasant surprise. He definitely balances the two very well and knows when to go in and out of each.
This, of course, sent me on a hunt to find any other music of his I could. On mainstream streaming services, I found four singles. ‘Mikey With the Lean,’ ‘Moved to LA,’ ‘Honest Tea,’ and ‘Ou Yeah.’ All four tracks are good, however, Mikey With the Lean and Honest Tea are without a doubt my favorites and were added to the playlist with the quickness.
With us starting to get HLX Radio to a more consistent space (more info on that later) finding his discography was close to perfect timing. We’ll see if playing the mixtape tracks goes ok, but those main tracks will definitely be in the rotation very soon. Now that Chris Scholar is on our radar we are surely going to be keeping up with him, his music and getting to any shows or events we can.
Check out the links to his social media and music below and to keep up to date on the best of local music be sure to always check back here at HLX Magazine.
