Rolling Stone called him a “cerebral rap poet.” Billboard noted that this artist weaves spirituality and intention into his music.” WNYC named him
“One of the stars of a new generation of hip hop artists from Chicago.”
RIAA gold-selling Chicago rap virtuoso and Pivot Gang band-leader Saba has announced his headlining The Big Picture Tour, kicking off in June.
The tour announcement follows on the heels of an intimate six-show run at New York City’s iconic Blue Note. A successful independent artist, Saba has rooted his career in an authenticity and musicality that’s made him one of his generation’s most important and unique voices in rap.
Saba began making music at age 9 and was writing and producing songs by early adolescence. Building a recording studio in his grandmother’s basement on the west side of Chicago, he and a group of neighborhood friends formed their Pivot Gang collective.
In 2019, J. Cole tapped Saba for the Dreamville collaboration album Revenge of the Dreamers III, in which Saba earned his first RIAA Gold certification for the song “Sacrifices.”
That same year, Saba, Noname, and Smino announced the creation of their Midwest super-group Ghetto Sage with the release of their debut track “Häagen Dazs.” 2022 marked Saba’s second RIAA Gold certification – this time for his own 2016 single “Photosynthesis.”
Saba’s most recent career highlights include performing at the United Center arena for Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap Anniversary, playing two weekends at Coachella, and touring the US, Europe and Africa in support of his album Few Good Things.
This year, Spotify named Saba’s critically acclaimed CARE FOR ME album amongst its “Spotify Classics: Hip-Hop & R&B Albums of the Streaming Era” campaign (which includes Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator and more) with billboards across Los Angeles and New York City.
Taking place across 13 dates with support from Ovrkast, the tour begins in Dallas on June 7th and will hit major markets across the US including Boston, New York, and a massive hometown show at Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash at SeatGeek Stadium right outside of Chicago before concluding in Los Angeles at the The Bellwether, June 28th.
Artist presale began April 16th with general on sale beginning April 18th local time.
Last month, Saba teamed up with GRAMMY® Award-winning super-producer and the “Godfather of Chicago Hip-Hop” No ID for the incredible From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID.
The record, named one of the most highly-anticipated of 2025 by major industry voices, earned high praise from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, and more, even being named one of the best releases of the year thus far.
The process of making the album was long, involved, and not always linear. Beginning life as a mixtape, it entailed mountains of demos, months of reconsideration, and even a hard reset. Yet when the time came to push the button, there was no hesitation.
From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID is the sort of record rap fans across generations adore: technically dazzling but thematically dense, irresistibly kinetic even as it dives deep into Saba’s psyche.
A year ago, the duo thought they were finished with the project, but Saba losing his uncle forced him to reevaluate. “He’s the person who made me fall in love with hip-hop,” Saba says. “It made me want to re-approach things; I had to have a lot of conversations with myself that I hadn’t had to have in a long time.”
From the buoyant opener “Every Painting Has A Price” to the playful “Breakdown,” “Woes of the World” and its elastic flow to the way “head.rap” effortlessly spins hair into a metaphor for the passage of time, the album is teeming with style and wit, and with No ID’s inimitable chops.
The beat on “Big Picture” is the ideal underline to Saba’s extended photography motif, seeming to give each line the combination of naturalism and nostalgia that defines the best images. Or see the brief “Reciprocity Interlude,” a hypnotic enough beat to serve as the spine of most major albums.
