Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

​
M.anifest's 2007 debut Manifestations was a bright surprise in an already-rich year for local hip-hop, a Native Tongues-via-Ghana joint that kick-started the MC's reputation as one of the Twin Cities' most vital new artists. The chance to hear a full-length followup has been one of the top priorities for local and national underground hip hop heads, and while M.anifest's been busy with a number of collaborations since his debut -- like his "S&M" teamup with Minneapolis-gone-Brooklyn R&B singer Sarah White, and the crew effort A.R.M., consisting of himself, the Ugandan-born MC Krukid and Brooklyn producer Budo -- he pulled a neat reversal on his birthday: his fans are the ones getting a present.

​

​

B FRESH Photography

​You may know Lady Of Rage from her famous early-'90s hit single "Afro Puffs" that came out like a warning siren from a tough-as-nails sister and featured Snoop Dogg. Her deep, fearless voice bellowed through the speakers on said hit unexpectedly at Epic in Minneapolis on Thursday when Snoop surprised everyone with her introduction. It made the Wonderland High Tour truly memorable and had Twitter going crazy.

Lady of Rage has made quite an impact on hip-hop's timeline with her lyrical style, but has been in hibernation cooking up her next album, Verbal Abuse. Even with her absence from the scene, there was no need for her to don a dark blue prison jumpsuit or have buff men dancing behind bars (circa 1995 Source Awards) to demonstrate how fierce she still is.

​

​ In anticipation of a new release he's offering for free on his birthday this month, Twin Cities rapper M.anifest leaked one of the tracks to City Pages this week -- an unauthorized re-fix/remix of Shafiq-Husayn track "The U.N. Plan". "Get Away" will appear on M.anifest's upcoming project The Birds And The Beats, to be released for free on Nov. 20 (download after the jump).

​The latest installment of the Felt series, Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez, drops on November 17, and Slug, Murs, and Aesop Rock want to celebrate with their Minneapolis fans. The trio of indie hip-hop heavyweights will host an in-store meet and greet at Fifth Element on the evening of the release, complete with a prize drawing, Toys for Tots gift drive, and a chance to pose for photos with the rappers. Fifth Element will continue their Toys for Tots gift drive throughout the rest of November and December, with a drop box located inside the store.

For more on the latest Felt project, check out this cheeky little interview video posted by Rhymesayers:

The perception P.O.S. leaves with the video for "Never Better" almost suggests that the emcee has some serious hate in him for Halloween. After all, in the music video he gets into a rumble with all sorts of fiendish ghouls, only to take a serious beat down.

Sharing some of his Halloween memories with MTV recently, the Doomtree staple recalls trying to trick-or-treat in waist-high snow, his least favorite Halloween candy & his distaste for Poltergeist. It's all beginning to make sense... video interview after the jump.

​Interview and words by Cheverly Council and Rebecca McDonald
Photos by B FRESH Photography

The vibe was live at Epic on Saturday night for the Stop the Violence Movement/Temple of hip hop show, with B-girls and boys out in full effect, a local hip hop lineup with over a dozen acts such as Illuminous 3, Lila T, and Ill Chemistry (Desdamona and Carnage), the Twin Cities Battle League, The Source Magazine's "Spit 16" battle, and hip hop heads old and new. It's safe to say, though, that most came out to get an earful of "The Teacha" KRS-One, who quietly passed through downtown but performed classics from "South Bronx" to "Sound of Da Police" with unmatchable thunder. He invited dancers to the stage to engage with him, as he yelled, "If you get your hip hop from the radio, step to the back!"

Currently on the Fresh Air Tour with Brother Ali and Evidence, Toki Wright has just dropped the first music video from his full-length Rhymesayers debut A Different Mirror. "Devil's Advocate" just saw it's debut on MTV--which also acts as Wright's solo debut on the national station--where it is now acting as the emcee's introduction to many across the nation. Time will tell, but hopefully the momentum surrounding the MPLS veteran's June release will evolve into his own headlining tour in the new year a la Ali. Watch out for Mr. Wright's video in the coming weeks as it continues to get play on MTVU & MTV JAMS. The Fresh Air Tour will continue to travel around the nation until late in November when a pair of shows at First Avenue will cap off the production (Nov. 20/21).

Toki Wright "The Next Best Thing" (mp3)

​
Streetwear company The Airtime Collection & Pwelbs recently dropped an absolutely ferocious mixtape that is packed with some of Minneapolis' brightest emcees. Here's a taste of what you're getting yourself into if you decide to take them up on the offer of downloading it at the low low price of free.99:

Nero "Yep, Ya Dig"
Dave Coresh "Keep It Movin'"
Chuck L.I. "Contact"
LA & Mr. Music "Wake Up ft. S-Preme"
Add-2 "Break It Down"
Illuminous 3 "BYOB" [follow on Twitter]
Background Noise Crew "5Play" [follow on Twitter]
Mally "The Savior" [follow on Twitter]
St. Paul Slim "You Gotta Get Wit' Me" [follow on Twitter]
Trey Lane "Where The Party At"
YP "On Point"
Dodi Phy "Love and Lust ft. M.anifest" [follow on Twitter]
Muja Messiah Messiah" [follow on Twitter]
Youngsta "The 80s Baby" "I Like Dat"
The Tribe & Big Cats! "Grind Time" [follow on Twitter | Twitter]
Add-2 "Let It Bang"
Mike Posner "First Date Sex"
LA & Mr. Music "I Was Born"
Nero "The Cannon"

The Airtime Collection & Pwelbs Present The March of Time (download link)

​(photo by phillippppp)

It was recently announced the St. Paul DJ/producer Freddy Fresh is set to join the staff at the McNally Smith College of Music's hip-hop diploma program. This is the first accredited program of its kind in the U.S.

B FRESH Photography

​Immortal Technique isn't your typical rapper. He raps about colonialism and racism rather than about girls and booze. Instead of spending money on chains and rims, he has wisely invested his money and given to humanitarian causes such as opening an orphanage/hospital in Afghanistan with Omeid International.

After returning to the U.S. from his trip to Afghanistan, and hitting up the stage at Soundset '09, Gimme Noise caught Technique, who was in rare form: on vacation -- in Minnesota. We chopped it up about his favorite place to eat in the Twin Cities, how he spends his time off, managing his investments, his love for classical music, and of course, revolution.

Photo courtesy of IntermediaArts.org

After a one-year hiatus, the fourth installment of B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop will return to Intermedia Arts in August. Last year, art gallery/performance space Intermedia Arts went through a rough patch as the board of directors was forced to scale back its staff and hours of operation, and this year's B-Girl Be events will be part of a rebirth of the beloved epicenter for local art.

As with previous B-Girl Be festivities, the summit will include several different events, beginning with a four-day summer youth workshop in August and culminating with a festival on September 19. For more information, visit the Intermedia Arts website. Here's a rundown of all of the different B-Girl Be gatherings, performances, and exhibits:

Multi-talented emcee and writer Kyle "Guante" Myhre has a compelling essay up over on Culture Bully today asking some tough questions about what is typically considered to be "socially conscious" hip-hop, and it's worth reading all the way through. Myhre starts out the essay with a question that was also floating through my head on Sunday as I watched all of the great hip-hop acts perform at Soundset: Where are all the women?

Hometown heroes fifteen hundred times over, Atmosphere are embarking on a new tour they've dubbed "When God Give You Ugly" featuring fellow Twin Cities rap staples Brother Ali and P.O.S.

But guess what?

We get no love!

"At this time, there is no Minneapolis date announced," Atmosphere's publicist Ryan W. told us. "Keep you posted if there is."

Then, minutes later from the publicity powerhouse came the following (like shoving an arrow through a bullet hole in our flesh!):

"We just got word that Brother Ali will be main support on the tour from May 10 - May 22. He's got a new EP , The Truth is Here, out on 3/10/09, and we couldn't be more excited."

Excuse us if we're not jumping out of our seats.

There's always a place for hometown pride, and Doomtree, our prized hip-hop collective, has certainly won an unconditional spot in many of our hearts. But that kind of pride often comes off as puffery in a band documentary, and can spoil even the richest source material. Thank God, then, that the Doomtree documentary, directed by local filmmakers Brady Kiernan and Bo Hakala, is a work of exhaustive, consummate artistry which gracefully avoids aggrandizing the tireless troupe of MC's and DJ's, and is genuinely bent on giving fans an unbiased look behind the scenes of the annual Doomtree Blowout.

With Tech N9ne in town this weekend, we started thinking about gangster rap and called Lars Larson for a Top Ten list of the most underrated rap songs ever. Get out you r%@$*# lipliner and/or Starter jackets, %@$*#. %@$*# !

In the world of hip hop, regional and stylistic divisions have been starkly highlighted since before Tim Dog got the idea that maybe Compton wasn't all that respectable. And while things aren't as heated as they were during the coastal beefs of the '90s, the fractured nature of the genre -- underground vs. pop, golden-age lyricism vs. hook-centered personality cults, the South vs. everyone else -- still ensures that there's a dozen places to cross over to and just as many reasons to stay doing what you're doing. That's why Jake One's career has been one of hip hop's most interesting underheard stories.

Two of Minneapolis' favorite sons will appear on Sole's remix LP to debut in January, and at least one will perform with him at the Uptown on Oct. 10.

Just as much an activist as he is a rapper, MPLS favorite Sage Francis is coming to the aid of the journalists and others arrested at the RNC this September.

Part head shop, part jewelry store, and mostly known for its dandy CD and DVD collection, the Electric Fetus (2000 Fourth Ave. S., Minneapolis) expands its repertoire this week into the political realm, registering and informing new and old voters while hosting in–store music shows.

Thanks to the RNC, this Labor Day weekend is about so much more than back to school sales, grilling out, and bemoaning that you can’t wear white again until spring. Here’s some cool events that didn’t make the A List, but are definitely worth checking out.

Have you ever wanted to see Mary Kate Olsen make out with Ben Kingsley? Yeah, I thought so. Check out this special screening of The Wackness tomorrow evening.

The tracks have been trickling out as singles for months, but now it's finally here all in one piece, and The Carter III does not disappoint. As an album, it's a five-star stunna, the hip hop equivalent of Sgt. Peppers. But how do the tracks fare in head-to-head comparison? Here's my review:

A little past midnight, MC/VL took the stage in front of 15. The show was a semi-secret affair, at an undisclosed location. After a couple sound checks, the Twin City emcees raced through a forty-minute set, causing enough ruckus to slam at least two audience members to the floor.

According to Mixtapepass.com, Tha Carter 3 is slated to ship June 10. But don't mark your calenders just yet--the elusive album has proven to be something of a hip-hop Chinese Democracy. The funny thing is, many of the songs slated to be on Tha Carter 3 have been widely available for months. YouTube clips of five favorites inside.