Chicago Drill x the Bulls: A Hip-Hop Fan's United Center Night

Chicago gave the world two exports that sound nothing alike and hit the same nerve: a basketball dynasty with a lineup introduction other teams copied, and a rap style so blunt it became a global language. Both are about presence. When the lights drop at the United Center and the synths start, you'll understand.

Drill: from the South Side to everywhere

In Chicago street slang, to "drill" means to fight or retaliate. Dro City rapper Pac Man is widely considered the style's originator, and his 2010 track "It's a Drill" is the first known link between the word and the music. The scene took shape on the South Side in the early 2010s, with critics often pointing to Parkway Gardens as its center.

Chief Keef was the accelerant. "Love Sosa," "I Don't Like" and "Bang" spread online, Interscope signed him, and in 2012 Kanye West remixed "I Don't Like" as "Don't Like" for G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer. Keef's debut, Finally Rich, sold an underwhelming 50,000 copies in its first week late that year and has since been treated as a genre classic. Around him were Lil Durk, Lil Reese, Fredo Santana, G Herbo and King Louie, plus producer Young Chop, whom critics often single out as the genre's defining beatmaker.

Musically, drill grows out of trap. Chicago's version leans on synth brass, bell-like melodies, crash cymbals and busy snare patterns, with Lex Luger's production as a major influence. The BBC has described drill's skippy, syncopated hi-hats as echoing the rapid fire of a machine gun.

Then it left home. UK drill took shape in Brixton from 2013 on, borrowing heavily from Chicago before groups like 67 built a homegrown sound. Brooklyn drill followed, with Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel early on and Pop Smoke's 808Melo-produced "Welcome to the Party" (2019) bringing it to a much bigger audience. By 2021, the BBC was calling drill the sound of the global youth.

Six rings, one intro

The Bulls were founded in 1966. Jerry Reinsdorf bought a controlling stake in 1985, a year after the team drafted Michael Jordan third overall. With Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson, Jordan's Bulls won three straight titles from 1991 to 1993 and three more from 1996 to 1998. The 1995-96 team, with Dennis Rodman arriving from San Antonio in a trade for Will Perdue, went 72-10 and became the first team in NBA history to win 70 games. Later, Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in league history in 2011.

Every one of those title teams was introduced the same way. "Sirius," a 1:48 instrumental from The Alan Parsons Project's 1982 album Eye in the Sky, became the Bulls' starting-lineup music in the late 1980s after public address announcer Tommy Edwards heard it in a local movie theater. Ray Clay was on the mic for all six Jordan-era championship seasons. The Suns, Jazz and Spurs picked it up in the '90s, Nebraska football has used it for its Tunnel Walk since 1994, and it played for team entrances at the 2026 World Cup. Rappers have walkout songs. Basketball has this one.

The United Center, the statue, and an All-Star halftime

After 27 years at Chicago Stadium, the 1929 barn that hosted the city's 1973 and 1988 All-Star Games, the Bulls moved across Madison Street into the United Center, which opened on August 18, 1994. It's the largest arena in the U.S. by physical size and the largest in the NBA by capacity, seating 20,917 for basketball. The Bulls clinched the 1996 and 1997 titles there in Game 6; the 1998 clincher came in Salt Lake City. The Blackhawks share the building, the two teams own it together, and it has hosted two Democratic National Conventions, in 1996 and 2024.

Jordan's statue went up outside in 1994 and now stands inside the atrium added in 2017. It's the obvious pregame photo. The studio behind it, Rotblatt Amrany, also sculpted Dwyane Wade's statue in Miami and the "Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant statue.

One of the building's best rap-meets-hoops nights came at the 2020 All-Star Game on February 16, 2020, Chicago's first since 1988. Three weeks after Kobe Bryant's death, the game used an Elam Ending with a target score set 24 points above the leader in his honor, and the halftime show featured Chance the Rapper, DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne and Quavo. Two nights earlier, Common was MVP of the Celebrity Game. Drill isn't Chicago's only rap story, but it's the one that rewired the rest of the world.

How to do a game night + night out in Chicago

• Getting there: The United Center is at 1901 W. Madison St. on the Near West Side. 'L' options include the Green Line at Damen, the Green and Pink lines at Ashland, and the Blue Line at Illinois Medical District.
• Eat first: Choose Chicago calls the converted warehouses of the West Loop home to the city's most buzzed-about dining scene, which makes it a natural pregame stop.
• Where the night goes: The same tourism board pitches River North as an urban nightlife destination, credits Wicker Park/Bucktown with a lively bar scene, and points to Logan Square for nightlife and live music.
• Know the late-night map: Illinois leaves closing hours to counties and cities. In Chicago, a shrinking group of late-hour license holders, 117 as of September 2025 and nearly all on the North Side, can stay open until 4 a.m. most nights and 5 a.m. at the end of Saturday night. Everyone else closes earlier, so check before you commit to a neighborhood.
• Bring real ID: Twenty-one is the national purchase age under the 1984 federal drinking-age law. Carry a physical, unexpired government photo ID and check each event's age policy before you buy.
• Dress for the walk: Winter game nights mean real cold between the train and the doors. Plan the coat check, not just the fit.