I’m not a huge fan of rap. I never really have been. Just not my scene. I typically can’t relate to going to the club and getting “turnt up”. When you live in the twin cities, you learn to love rap. The Twin Cities is home to Rhymesayers Entertainment and Doomtree. One is a label (Rhymesayers) and one is a collective (Doomtree) and both have made me fall in love with Minnesota rap.

What makes Minnesota rap different? Majority of them rap about everyday things. They rap about being hungover, about missing friends and family, about the terrible winters in Minnesota, about the music scene. Things I can relate to. I love that. I love hearing shout outs to Lake Street and Uptown Minneapolis in Atmosphere’s raps. That’s the difference. There’s no going to the club and getting turnt up and there is no excessive use of curse words. It’s just real life rap.

Yesterday was the Soundset Festival. I was surrounded by almost 30,000 of the most interesting people the Twin Cities has to offer. You had the hippies, the wannabe rappers/MC’s, the metal kids, the parents, the little kids, the gangsters and so on and so forth. All of these people coming together for one of the best festivals Minnesota has to offer.

It’s not often you’ll find me at a rap show. I love me some political rap like Sage Francis and B. Dolan (who played a side stage yesterday). But when it comes to the main stream stuff… I’d rather listen to it quietly in my car as I have a reputation as a hardcore kid to keep up! Yesterday was a mix of main stream, local and underground MC’s and Rappers. That’s the way a festival should be. I want to see bands I loved back in high school, bands I’ve never heard of, legends of the rap scene and bands that I have seen play a million times before in small clubs all in one day.

Here are a couple of highlights I remember from yesterday:

  • Dessa (a member of Doomtree) played earlier in the day on one of the two main stages. Dessa was my graduation speaker when I graduated from college. It was so surreal to see her on this stage rapping to thousands of people because all I could think about was shaking her hand when I graduating and talking to her about my future goals.
  • It rained… all day. My roommate and I were soaked to the bone by the time we left. That leads to quite a miserable experience but there were times during the day where you almost forgot about the rain. Like when Atmosphere playing Sunshine, you just completely forgot about it.
  • Because of the rain, ponchos and garbage bags with rain boots seemed to be the outfit of choice for many.
  • Dessa decided to hop down from the stage and into the crowd but when she had to come back up to the stage, she got lost. The way she talked through the whole maze of trying to get back on stage was hilarious to say the least.
  • People were passing out left and right. It wasn’t hot out so it couldn’t have been heat exhaustion like I’m used to at my shows. No, I’m guessing more drug overdoses than anything.
  • Flatbush Zombies got a “rap mosh pit” going. I was watching it on the big screen but I really couldn’t tell you what those people were doing. Moshing should probably just stay as a rock music thing.
  • Is this what Woodstock was like?
  • Yelawolf put two wooden stools into the crowd and told people to crowd surf the stools with someone sitting on them. Needless to say, that didn’t last long and the stools quickly disappeared into the crowd.
  • The crowd. There’s not much more I can say about that. The people watching was well worth the ticket price alone.
  • I have never smelled so much weed in my life. Ever. Thank God it was outside!
  • Who is Big Sean? And why are his lyrics so terrible? How is he even famous?!
  • Atmosphere killed it. As always. In my opinion, one of Minnesota’s best rappers with one of the most charming smiles ever.

All in all, it was a great day and I can’t wait for Soundset 2016!

Line-Up

Soundset– There are too many to list on here.

Venue: Canterbury Park– Just a field outside

Sausage Fest Meter- 8 out of 10

Crowd Surfers- Is crowd surfing appropriate at a rap show? I didn’t notice any.