On May 25th 2014, over 30,000 fans flocked to Canterbury Park for the Soundset Hip Hop festival. From its humble beginnings in a South Minneapolis warehouse between local Hip Hop groups, Soundset has grown into one of the largest and most revered Hip Hop festivals in the country. With tickets selling out for the first time in the festival’s history, moods were at an all-time high.
Thanks to the universal respect of Rhymesayers Entertainment, this year’s bill continued to attract Hip Hop artists and fans from across the globe to share in the Twin Cities Hip Hop scene. One fan in particular was legendary Hip Hop journalist Sway Calloway, who not only returned to host the Soundset main stage for the second year in a row but hosted a live broadcast of his Sirius XM radio show, Sway in the Morning, from the sweltering comforts of the Rhymesayers owned record store Fifth Element.
“Twin Cities remind me a lot of where I grew up in Oakland-Bay Area,” said Sway. “When I was growing up: we had MC Hammer, who was a commercial success. We had Too $hort, who was an underground success. We had Rappin’ 4-Tay, who was a local success. We had MC Twist, who had kind of a like a bay sound. We had The Luniz who were a hybrid of what they used to consider backpack and street rap. And then we had the Hieroglyphics with Del the Funky Homosapien and Casual. So you had all this different energy coming out of one place and you really couldn’t identify it with one energy, one sound or one look. And it made it really competitive in a positive way as it kept pushing culture forward. And when I come to Minneapolis, it reminds me of that.”
Memories were made all throughout the day as fans were able to witness up incoming talent alongside certified legends of Hip Hop. Most of the audience stood in awe at Nas as he performed his now 20 year magnum opus, Illmatic, from front to back to near perfection as he was amazed by the teenage fans recited every word of his songs. The ever raucous antics of Earl Wolf (comprised of Odd Future’s Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt) jeered the crowd into an angst filled dance party throughout their irreverent set. Despite cancelling shows for the past month to recover from his recent illness, Chance the Rapper seemed well rested as he displayed his boundless energy as he jumped and juked across the screaming main stage. Backed by his live band, The Social Experiment, brought his highly acclaimed mixtape, Acid Rap, to life and shown that his stage presence is comparable to Little Richard’s most energetic performances.
Fans were awakened to TDE’s Ab-Soul as he gave the sold out audience a taste of his upcoming and embattled album, These Days…, with songs like “Tree of Life” and his Action Bronson assisted song “Stigmata.” Despite grumblings on account of his DJ, fans were rejoiced in his raps of expanding consciousness and political resistance (despite the irony of an unmanned security drone hovering over the stage during his song “Terrorist Threats”). And multi-platinum selling artists, Cypress Hill proved that stoned was the way of the walk just in time for Minnesota’s Medical Marijuana debate. With their explosive set filled with B-Real and Sen Dog’s uncompromised energy over rock based beats provided by DJ Muggs, it allowed fans to get a natural high off of their “Latin Lingo.”
Probably the biggest surprise of the day was headliner, Wiz Khalifa appearing right on schedule after he tweeted a picture of himself inside of Texas Jail cell for Marijuana possession Sunday morning. “You all are the reason I’m free,” Wiz Khalifa pronounced before the turnt up audience as he performed his hits including “Black and Yellow,” Work Hard, Play Hard,” and his newest single “We Dem Boyz.”
Aside from national acts, Soundset has become a rite of passage for local artists trying to take their careers to another level. St. Paul MC and recently signed Rhymesayers artist, deM atlaS as he took part in his well-received Soundset debut on the main stage this year. “Soundset is everything to me,” said deM atlaS. “I always had aspirations of being on that stage and I’ve have mad love for all the cats that have rocked that stage. So it means a lot for me to be there.”
Minnesota artists were well represented early on in the day with performances from Ecid, Mac Irv, Allan Kingdom, K.Raydio & Psymun at the Fifth Element stage, which has become premier spot for underground talent to shine. One local act that continued to captivate everyone on the grounds was Rhymesayers party animal, Prof as he tested out a new song off his upcoming new album as well as fan approved favorites before a crowd of volleying inflatable animal balloons. Minneapolis’ favorite diva, Lizzo proved why she is the next global phenomenon with her bombastic set. With surprise special guests including GRRRL PRTY, Sean Anonymous and P.O.S; Lizzo tested the crowd’s stamina with her quirky and thundering rhymes while Doomtree’s own, Lazerbeak, pounded away on his MPC.
As the festival raged on, many took notice of the importance of a show of this kind, including Soundset performer, radio host and local activist Toki Wright. “After we stopped the Twin Cities Celebration of Hip Hop festivals,” said Toki Wright, “there was an absence of big events here for a while. Since Rhymesayers put this together, they really filled a void in a lot of spaces. There are still a lot of cats that are hungry and still haven’t had an opportunity to step on any of these stages. There are a lot of movements going on and this is one of them. It proves that we are a viable scene that rings bells all across the world when people look to Minnesota and they see that many people come together to hear music from your town.”
Another local hip hop heavy weight is MaLLy, who hosted the official Soundset Before Party the night before, truly understands the importance of Soundset for the local talent after his career flourished from Slug of Atmosphere wore one of his shirts during his Soundset performance two years ago. “That was a beautiful point in my career and put me in front a lot people without even being in front of them,” explained MaLLy. “Soundset is a beautiful thing that a lot of people’s lives can change. It definitely changed my life as an artist…It benefits the community culturally, financially, artistically and emotionally. It brings people together and as weird as it is to say, it’s kind of like Christmas.”
One aspect that continues to reaffirm Soundset’s impeccable reputation within the industry is its commitment to the Hip Hop culture. “Everything in the culture is there,” said Twin Cities beat boxer/MC Carnage the Executioner, “I love the DJ representation. They keep representing all the elements of Hip Hop every year.” This year, they were able to bring in one of greatest Hip Hop DJs, DJ Q-Bert as he brought extra-terrestrial scratching and blends before captive onlookers, hoping to learn from a pioneer in turntablism. Soundset also had live representation of breakdancing, skateboarding and the graffiti walls where artists shake up their aerosol arsenal to create techno-color tags before the passing admirers, with this year including local legend Ewok.
One of the most popular segments of the festival is the Last of the Record Buyers, a showcase for local and national producers to present their beats within the Essential Elements Tent. As part of their showcase, they included a popular beat battle known as The Sample Challenge. “The Sample Challenge is where producers are challenged ahead of time to make something out of a certain sample,” said one of the Last of the Record Buyers curators and Big Quarters MC/producer Medium Zach. “This year’s theme was video games as people made beats out of Tetris theme and Mario theme.”
Alongside the prepared battles, there are also live production segments where producers will create a beat before the audience’s eyes and ears. The headliner this year was Minnesotan multi-instrumentalist Dosh, whose live production incorporates many different machines and instrumentals to produce one unified sound. “He sets the bar to what I think live music production can look like,” said Medium Zach.
As many fans staggered to find a comfortable spot to rest on the hill, many relaxed inside their own cars as part of the 7th Annual Soundset Custom Car Show. Arguably the most overlooked part of Soundset, many in attendance stumbled around the rows of candy coded custom cars, gleaming from the back corner of the grounds. “I grew up listening to Hip Hop and I grew up working on cars,” said Custom Car Owner Leo Vishnyak, who brought his 2007 Mazda Speed 3 to this year’s competition. “That’s how it is with a lot of folks in the Midwest. So it’s definitely a good melting pot of all cultures here.”
Envious onlookers gawked at the fantastical rides ranging from silver Lamborghini to a cherry red vintage Mustang as owners competed in multiple categories such as American Muscle, Import Tuners, Sound Systems and even Hydrolytic hopping.
The day eventually came to an end as Sway, mustering the last pieces of his exhausted voice, introduced the hometown heroes, Atmosphere to the stage. Opening with the wavering chords of the title track of their new album, Slug and Ant returned to bring all of Canterbury Park to Southside Minneapolis. And to prove they still had a few tricks to bring to the star spoiled crowd, they quickly invited Brother Ali to help perform their song “Cats Van Bags” to remind many listeners of the reason why Rhymesayers is still one of the most unique crews in Hip Hop. Despite their outstanding homecoming, hundreds made their way to the exits in hopes of avoiding the unmoving traffic that brought the busy highways to a halt, hours before. In addition to the uncharacteristically pleasant weather, Soundset 2014 made history as well as the highlight of many fans summer.