Editor’s Note: In May 2013, Boston underwent a music revolution. Award-winning digital arts magazine Vanyaland and game-changing major-league music festival Boston Calling launched within 10 short days of each other, completely altering and elevating the landscape where music and culture intersect in a city that had previously gone relatively stale. In the near-decade since, the two entities have been a defining feature of our city, both for its residents and how it’s perceived everywhere else. In Spring 2022, Vanyaland and Boston Calling team up to showcase the homegrown bands and artists that help shape the most Boston lineup of Boston Calling ever. Boston Calling’s ’22 headliners — Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes — and its solid undercard are well-known and established; but over the next few weeks, keep it locked as Vanyaland profiles the homegrown talent that decorates the lineup like never before. Nine years later, Vanyaland and Boston Calling continue to showcase Boston in new ways, and we have the sounds to prove it.
Avenue
Performing on Friday, May 27
What can fans expect from your set at Boston Calling?
“The most BOSTON, Boston Calling set you’ve ever heard. We represent the heart of the city, a section of the town that’s not often displayed. & memorial weekend it’ll be front stage. We’re Really from the town, & that’s on dead dawgs” — Avenue
Artist bio:
Boston-based rapper Avenue combines urban storytelling with an old-school focus on sample-heavy production, self described as urban poetry. Growing up in the South End/Lower Roxbury section of Boston. Avenue (born in 1991), started rapping in his late teens early 20s. Posting cyphers online in 2011, he would make his debut with the Words Speak Life mixtape in 2012. With an honesty and insight similar to Nas, an easy on the ear conversational tone reminiscent of JAY Z, his dense bars and thoughtful perspective helped him develop a local following. He quickly followed with the Summer of ’91 EP before issuing his sophomore mixtape, The Chandelier View. With production from frequent collaborator Hi-Fadility & Grammy Award winner TEDDY WALTON. As his exposure increased, he secured high-profile guests like Smoke DZA and Royce da 5’9″ for his official LP debut, Mass Ave & Lenox. The album featured the Deon Chase/Smoke DZA collaboration “Nobody,”. In 2021, Avenue released two highly praised & well received projects. Collaborative project Two Sides Of The Same Coin which featured Pawtucket’s Hil Holla (which featured singles “Real Recognize Real” & “LO Sweater” & solo project B R O W N S T O N E S; which featured single “Bob The Chefs”, an ode to a Black owned soulful restaurant that once existed in the heart of Boston. Avenue has always & will always be the proper representation of Boston.
What we’ve said: Avenue on Vanyaland
Avenue and FUNERAL Ant Bell elevate their cool in the ‘WE UP’ video
Instagram: @AvenueBLVD
Listen: Avenue on Spotify
Watch: Avenue on YouTube
