Big Quarters, Kristoff Krane, Carnage, Hyder Ali & El Guante @ the Entry

Big Quarters

If your knowledge of Minneapolis hip hop begins and ends with Atmopshere, Brother Ali and Doomtree, now is the time to update your CD collection. Saturday night at the Entry there was a release show for Mill City Scene, a brand new print and online publication that is dedicated to the Minneapolis and St. Paul hip hop scene. To celebrate the release of their first edition, they brought together an embarrassment of riches that showed both the strength and the diversity of local hip hop.

El Guante

Carnage

The first act, and also the emcee of the night, was up and coming rapper/spoken word artist El Guante, who I missed as we were crossing the city coming from Dark Dark Dark and Dosh. I was disappointed to miss his set, as both his CD, El Guantes Haunted Apartment and his mixtape Conscious is Not Enough, were two of my most played hip hop albums of the last year. (Full Disclosure: El Gaunte does write for Culture Bully, but I honestly stand by my assessment of his talents and would gladly argue it further with anyone who thinks otherwise.) Next up was the amazing spit fire rhymes and beatboxing of Carnage. His talent in both areas was beyond crazy and his fiery set was very well received by the growing crowd. He ended his set with a funny and rousing cover of the Beastie Boys, which the crowd, not surprisingly, ate up.

Carnage

Carnage

The third group of the night was the live hip hop group Hyder Ali. The band, which is currently getting spins on The Current for their single “Paper Dolls,” reminded me a lot of Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble, which if you saw my list I ranked that CD the #1 local CD of the year, you will understand it is a huge compliment. The three piece band (guitar, bass, drums) created smoldering layers of sound that swelled and crashed at all the right times and showed how funky and downright nasty a live hip hop band can be if it is done right. Consummate frontman Eric Blair, who had the crowd wrapped around his finger, sounded like Crescent Moon rapping Slug-like highly dramatic, emotionally scarred lyrics. After hearing their searing live set, I am very excited to hear their debut full length and expect big things from this great new band.

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali

The fourth act of the night was a solo set by Kristoff Krane, an up and coming spoken word artist/rapper who seems to pop up all over in the Twin Cities hip hop scene. His set was intense and was even more dramatic in light of the less in your face music that preceded and followed it. His set was extremely varied and he switched between a machine gun flow and his more direct spoken word passages while being backed at various times by his iPod, his keyboard playing, and one song where he freestyled over a looped beat he had created on the fly. Krane was engaging and showed why he is so respected in the local hip hop scene.

Kristoff Krane

Kristoff Krane

Kristoff Krane

Kristoff Krane

Last up was the consistently great duo Big Quarters. Their music was the most traditional hip hop in the sense that their beats were huge and their rapping is all politically conscious bravado and smooth rhymes. The crowd had thinned out by the time Big Quarters hit the stage (close to 1:00 a.m.), which was too bad for the people who missed out. Their stage presence was highly energetic and their energy was contagious for the crowd that had been at the show for almost four hours at that point. They were a great end to a night that showed the amazing amount of hip hop talent that our great city has.

Big Quarters

All of the groups mentioned are constantly playing shows around the cities and are well worth checking out any chance you can. I have found in the past few years that as far as hip hop goes, there is so much talent boiling over in our city that I often do not even have to check out national releases and I have enough great music to keep my stereo constantly humming. Shows like this just provide more evidence that the hip hop scene in Minneapolis is one of the best in the country and will never leave fans wanting for more. If you are a fan of hip hop at all and have not seen or heard any of the bands mentioned in this article, I would highly recommend checking them out.

[Review by Josh Keller, photos by Jon Behm.]

Big Quarters: Purchase | Official | Twitter | MySpace
El Guante: Official | MySpace
Carnage: MySpace
Hyder Ali: Purchase | MySpace
Kristoff Krane: Purchase | MySpace

Also: New releases from Big Quarters, Maria Isa, Toki Wright