Milwaukee native Jacob Latimore is back in town to perform at Summerfest Tuesday night.
'The CHI' actor and R&B artist moved to Atlanta for his career when he was a kid but still calls Milwaukee his hometown.
"It's a real grounding experience for me," Latimore said. "To go to New York, Chicago, all these different cities and just to come back home and realize, whoa. This all started from YouTube videos, passing out flyers, going to the Boys & Girls Club, performing at schools and now, able to travel the country and have fans all over."
Latimore will play on the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage at 8:00 p.m. It's a fitting setting for Latimore; his first two studio albums are called Connection and Connection2.
But it's even more fitting because he played at Summerfest for the first time as a solo act in 2006 at just nine years old.
"I was performing a lot of cover tunes," Latimore said. "I was learning dances from my inspirations like Omarion, Usher. Now, I got my own moves."
When Latimore isn't behind the mic, he's playing Emmett in Showtime's "The CHI," a show detailing life in a rough South Side Chicago neighborhood. While the show is based two hours south of Milwaukee, Latimore stays Cream City proud.
"We feel like Milwaukee doesn't have opportunity," Latimore said. "I'm happy to be an example. Someone coming from the city to really succeed in the music industry or any industry really."
Success is slowly but surely coming to Milwaukee. Artists like Lex Allen, Webster X and IshDARR are helping to put Milwaukee's hip hop and R&B scene on the map.
But Latimore's success helps inspire others in the city to know they can make it too.
"I think about [Milwaukee] every day," Latimore said. "Milwaukee is the under dog when it comes to etntertainment coming out of this city. We got a lot of talent here in the Midwest and Milwaukee. I want to be able to shine light on that and tell the world, look; I'm not the only talent in Milwaukee. There is a lot of talented rappers, song writers and musicians."
Latimore says IshDARR will join him to perform a song they recorded together called, "The Real."
