Any day of the week you can find the members of Chicago-based Figure and their crew in the studio. With their eyes half shut, LTD and King James, the two lyricists, along with V-extreme, the producer, vibe to the butter tracks, working to make their dream of blowing up on the music scene come true.

Figure, which rocked the crowd at A.C. Reed’s Nov. 16 with Big S.T.E.W., Quiet Storm, Sean Lett and Chilly, is also working to gain more respect for its hometown of Chicago within the scene.

LTD said the name represents them individually as well as collective.

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The concept behind the name Figure’ is a collaboration of three individuals and when you put us together we form a figure through our dialect and the way we dress, LTD said.

LTD said his lyrics come from things he has experienced growing up on the south side of Chicago.

The tracks sometimes spark a thought for a song or either I rhyme about something ill that I saw, LTD said.

Vextreme said it is important for him to represent the Chicago sound in his production.

Chicago style is more musical and groovy, not hard-core and edgy, Vextreme said.

LTD said his lyrics should reflect where he is from.

The city Chicago is where I get my ideas from, he said. You can’t write about something you don’t know anything about.

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In the 60s and 70s, Chicago was a big music market like Los Angeles is today, V-extreme said.

Now, Chicago is on the down low, but we originated the groovy sound, and it pops up in other places, he said.

He considers the music scene in Chicago dead because people do not see those who are involved in the industry.

Chicago has not kept up with the business, and we lack what we need to compete with the East and West coasts, he said.

He said Chicago is the most underrated city on the music level, even though some of hip-hop’s top producers, including A-Plus and Domino from Souls of Mischief and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, travel a thousand miles to Chicago record stores such as Dr. Wax, Second Hand Tunes and Beverly Records, to pick up records for sampling.

All the top producers in hip-hop come here and shop because this is the only city where you can find all of the groovy music done in the 60s and 70s, V-extreme said.

V-extreme said he has matured a lot musically since 1988 and, at one point, he was stuck creating beats with the same sound.

I started doing beats in 88 and I began to get repetitious, so I chose to try something different, he said. I did a lot of sampling at first, but now I add a lot of my own ideas.

Currently, Figure has a cut, Dream Come True, on Talent Fest, an underground Chicago compilation CD that includes 14 of Chicago’s underground hip-hop groups.

V-extreme said Dream Come True is an example of how the group is revolutionizing its sound.

Dream Come True’ is to let everybody know where we are coming from, what we are all about and to get people ready for what’s in store, he said.

V-extreme is working on a soon-to-be-released EP featuring Chicagobased Quiet Storm, Sean Lett, Big S.T.E.W. and Figure. He will have at least one track on Common’s new album.

His goal as a producer is to earn Chicago some respect in the industry and to help others from Chicago do the same.

We are like the pioneers of hip-hop representing Chicago and I want to take Chicago hip-hop to a level where it is heard just as much as people from the East and West coast, he said.