Local Review: Icky Rogers – Chasing Saturday

Icky Rogers
Chasing Saturday

Self-Released
Street: 05.19
Icky Rogers = De La Soul + Alice Coltrane + Morcheeba

Icky Rogers is anything but icky—in fact, he is over-the-top fantastic. His talents are on full display on his new record, Chasing Saturday. With its clean, tight and pristine production, along with a newfound confidence in his cosmos-infused hip-hop poetry, listening to this record is like roller skating on one of Saturn’s rings.

Icky flows brilliantly over trap beats with lots of jazz (both acid and slow) that he mixes up with a subtle disco sleaze—the kind Giorgio Moroder used to dish out in the ’70s. It all sits perfectly in place for Icky to flow over the top and murder everything in sight.

Icky has a touch of that De La Soul Is Dead–era vibe without the skits and silliness. De La Soul has the classic “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’”; Icky takes on that same day and hits the same home run. “Monday and Tuesday was some bullshit / I’m just sayin’/ Wednesday I had car trouble / I need y’all to quit playin’ / Thursday and Friday start to go my way / And shit, everything might be ok / If I can make it to Saturday.” Icky burns the track to ash. “Listen, when you come / Don’t bring me any of that Monday/Tuesday energy.” Icky goes on, “I need you to treat it like it’s mother fucking Saturday night.” Sublime.

Prior to performing at the Craft Lake City DIY Festival in 2021, Icky told SLUG: “My music is deeply inspired by the nighttime, by nightlife and by all manner of after-hours activities. Exploring the duality found in nightlife is a theme I am deeply interested in right now.” This theme plays out all over Chasing Saturday. “Once upon a time in the city, it’s Icky,” Icky announces on the opening track, “Twilight.” “Now that it is twilight, gonna give you the highlights.”

This is definitely an after-hour record. “The bar stop serving drinks / And the club hot and it stinks” goes “That Time Of Night.” “And the weed smoke and the gun smoke / And the nice guys start to blend in / And you look around and you wonder / Where your money goes / Where your friends is.” On “Friends In The City,” Icky explains that it is the friends who are sometimes the first to go. “Ok, but like, where are all my mother fucking homies at? / Where my dogs? Where my good Judy’s? / There used to be so many of you all.” Icky laments, “Killed the people that we used to be / Don’t see a lot of faces that I used to see / And I’m not in the same place that I used to be.”

Icky still finds room for fun on this record. He name drops Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Brittney Murphy and Grace Jones. He takes us for a ride around the city on the track “Jazz Time”—”From K-Town to Sugerhouse / They know I got them lyrics / From the south side to the Capital / Hand me the mic and I’ll clear it.” And on “Crowded,” Icky gives us a touch of new jack swing with Sequoia joining in to provide a little extra ’90s R&B lean.

“I wonder where this path to hip-hop leads,” Icky asks on the final track. “Everybody wanna think about what hip-hop needs.” Hip-hop needs Icky Rogers. Hip-hop needs voices and visions other than the big coastal cities and down south. Thank you Icky Rogers for representing this mountain town. This record will spin on turntables and in clubs all summer long. I’m already wearing it out. –Russ Holsten

Read more about Icky Rogers:
Local Music Singles Roundup: October 2022
SLUG Style: Icky Rogers