EPTHow is it going today TL, I am one day away from a three day weekend and feeling good. That being the case I wanted to share some of the local music I am privileged enough to enjoy in my hometown and current city of residence. I just wanted to share, what I consider an amazing departure from mainstream rap, and poetic form of expression
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Minneapolis is an interesting city to say the least. We have more theaters per capita than any other city other than New York City (only a population difference of 15 million or so). We love our arts, parks, and lakes; there are more than 10,000 in the entire state. As a state we are likely most famous for the musical stylings of Bob Dylan. Though he was from Hibbing or Duluth, depending on who you ask, he did was shaped by Minneapolis. To this day, on Fourth Street near the University of Minnesota there is a mural of the folk legend and his song "Positively Fourth Street"
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As punk emerged, notable punk acts like the Husker Du, and the Replacements rose to prominence cementing a place for the city in punk history
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This video for "Make No Sense at All," will make anyone who has been to Minneapolis giggle, delightfully campy.
The 1980s were the decade for Minneapolis music with the hard funk of Morris Day and the Time, and Prince soaring to fame.
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Scene from 1984’s Purple Rain filmed at the quintessential Minneapolis venue First Avenue.
Why go into this little diatribe about the city then? Because the Minneapolis Rap/Hip hop sound is as unique as its musical history. The earliest break out of our local scene come mainly from two groups: Eyedea and Abilities, and Atmosphere. Both groups rose to fame with the DJ/Producer+MC combination (Though Atmosphere was originally a trio). The recently passed Eyedea, first gained notoriety on the battle circuit.
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Here he is on the HBO series “Blaze Battle” in 2000. Guess which one was the kid from the Midwest.
Though Eyedea was battle trained, he developed into a well rounded lyricist, capable of evoking complex emotions using fantastic turns of phrase to envelop the listener. By the time Eyedea passed in 2010, he was actively participating in three groups E&A, Oliver Hart, and Face Candy. The last LP put out by the group is a brilliant melange of Eyedea’s own struggle with insomnia, relationships, and indie hip hop backed by strong beats and mixing from Abilities.
“Burn Fetish”
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“Smile”
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From its earliest full length album Atmosphere represented a departure from “mainstream,” hip hop. I hesitate to use that term as it is rather loaded, but hey what can you do? Atmosphere’s first and second albums “Overcast!” and “Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs,” while relatively immature in terms of content showed promise. For a twenty something Slug and Ant (DJ/Producer) showed remarkable promise and diversity of much more experienced artists.
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“Scapegoats” from Overcast!
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“Nothin’ but Sunshine” from Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs
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When one thinks Minneapolis hip hop, Atmosphere is first to mind. Heavy bass lines, reminiscent of the city’s funk roots weave through beats while Slug’s lyrics tell a story so compelling you can’t help but want to believe. In recent years the group has undergone significant changes, for going the turntables in favor of a live band and while they haven’t abandoned their earlier catalog, the music has been adapted to suit the capabilities of a five piece group.
Guarantees-off “When Life Gives you Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold”
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You- "When Life Gives you Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold"
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So we have covered some of the funkier, and more organically styled hip hop acts in the town but Tom why bring up Folk and Punk music? Simple, one word answer: Doomtree. Doomtree is not so much a group, though they have released collective albums, as it is the assembly of three producers (Paper Tiger, Lazerbeak and MK Larada) and five MCs: POS, Dessa, Sims, Mictlan, and Cecil Otter. To keep this short, as I am already running long on this blog we will do one sample per MC with a simple description.
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POS- Heavy punk influence, hard beats with interesting melodics (Only rapper I have heard reference Miyazaki and use an Underoath song as a basis for a beat)
Half Cocked Concepts- Audition
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Dessa- Jazz singer meets modern rap with a latin twist
Dixon's Girl
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Sims- Speed, word play, enthusiam,
Burn it Down
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Mictlan- Actually grew up a block away from this guy, but straight hype man, Pure energy.
Game Over
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Cecil Otter- Spoken word styled wordsmith, organic, acoustic.
Rickety Bridge
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Combine all these together you get some interesting material. I offer to you this last video from Doomtree for the song "Bangarang"
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We have a robust scene here, and I would encourage you all to check it out. I have missed and skipped a lot of material so I would leave you with a list of artists that I love, that characterize our scene here in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. The bottom line is I don't know half as much about the artists below as those above. I still have soft spots for them and will include some songs. Thanks for reading guys and Happy listening.
Notable Minneapolis Artists
Brother Ali- Black, albino, muslim (How could this not be interesting?)
Forrest Whittake
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Heirespecs- Set band, Bassist is Named Twinkie Jingles FFS
5ves (There is actually a Starcraft reference in this one)
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I Self Divine- Don't have a favorite here, but all around good
Kill the Vultures- Experimental very indie stylings, one MC on producer with a live mixed MPC
Moonshine
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