Soundset scorecard

Though this year's Soundset festival is out in the boonies at the Canterbury Park racetrack and casino in Shakopee, the Rhymesayers-heavy rap festival provides ample reason to make the trek on Sunday: Eight hours of hip-hop on two stages, for one thing. Secondary enticements include a DJ battle tent, custom lo-rider car show, a skate demo and competition, and, if all else fails, the lure of gambling—for those of legal age, of course. (For those lacking an automobile, there will be free shuttles from the Mall Of America to the festival.) But the biggest draw, obviously, is the music. Here's our list of the most must-see artists on the bill.

DOOM
The critically revered, metal-masked rapper known as DOOM (a moniker recently shortened from "MF Doom") jams image after oddball image together with his own bizarre slang and convoluted internal rhymes, but it’s worth catching him at Soundset just to see who shows up. Amid a flurry of rumors that an impostor was performing in his place at live shows (an easy enough trick, given the headgear), the man born Daniel Dumile insisted that DOOM was a character and likened recent performances to the various Batman movies, where different actors played the Dark Knight. “I'll tell you one thing,” he said in an interview with HipHopDX.com, “if you’re coming to a DOOM show, don’t expect to see me, expect to hear me or hear the music that I present. And it's gonna be a unique experience every time.” What that means is anybody’s guess.

Dan MonickAtmosphere
Interviewed by Decider earlier this week, rapper Slug talked about how Atmosphere was past the point of trying to convince people it's cool. If that’s the case, then bring on comfortable middle age: In the past four years, Atmosphere has released two full-length records, re-issued two out-of-print gems (Headshots: SE7EN and God Loves Ugly), leaked another full-length (Strictly Leakage), and put out a ton of EPs. And through it all, they’ve kept up a blistering touring pace, becoming one of hip-hop’s most durable and reliable draws. As consistent as DOOM is flaky, they are the best reason to go to Soundset.

The Pharcyde
Never mind 2000’s underwhelming Plain Rap and 2004’s half-assed Humboldt Beginnings: The Pharcyde will always be remembered for its almost criminally hilarious debut, Bizarre Ride II, and its follow-up, the underrated Labcabincalifornia. The group's two biggest hits, “Passin’ Me By” and “Runnin’,” dropped the G from more than their gerunds. Born and raised in South Central L.A., The Pharcyde eschewed the gangsta rap so prevalent in the early '90s, crafting a sound that was multi-colored when they were clowning and surprisingly subtle when they were acting serious. The group always relied on the unique chemistry of the four original members, so the chance to see Imani, Bootie Brown, Fatlip, and SlimKid3 together again is one you don’t want to miss.

Brother Ali
P.O.S.
In a lot of ways, these two Rhymesayers artists couldn’t be more dissimilar: the professor and the upstart, the scientist and the iconoclast. Brother Ali has long been recognized as one of the best, if not the best, pure rappers the Twin Cities has produced. Just ask any other MC around and he or she will tell you no one is more absolutely spot-on with their flows. By contrast, P.O.S. is a total rumbling disaster, rolling Katamari-like and picking up everything in his path, building a beautiful and ever-expanding globe of cast-off detritus. What they share, however, is an absolute respect for the craft and history of hip-hop; Ali expressing it through flawless execution, and P.O.S. through joyful, wanton dis- and re-assembly.

Freeway & Jake One
It seems there’s less of a divide these days between the underground and the mainstream in hip-hop, and Jake One is a good example of a producer straddling those two worlds. He’s as comfortable making bangers for 50 Cent and Freeway as he is twisting heads with tracks for DOOM and De La Soul. For a taste of what to expect, check out Freeway’s gravel-voiced work on the soul-tinged “The Truth” from Jake One’s White Van Music here:


Immortal Technique
As fiery a political rapper as you can imagine, Immortal Technique has been doing things his own way since his 2001 debut, Revolutionary Vol. 1, which he distributed and promoted himself using money won at rap battles. That’s paying your dues. His relentlessly confrontational style carries more weight than a dump truck.

Jules AmeelEyedea & Abilities
Eyedea & Abilities went on an almost four-year hiatus after releasing the critically acclaimed E&A in 2004. But now the former freestyle and DJ battle champs (a kind of rap dream team) are back together again. With their first album in five years, By The Throat, coming out on Rhymesayers in July, Soundset attendees can expect a live preview of their new tracks.

Prince Paul
Prince Paul’s résumé as a producer reads like a who’s who of influential underground hip-hop acts: Stetsasonic, De La Soul, Gravediggaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, J-Live, and more. He’s definitely going to be one of the highlights of the DJ tent this year.

B-FreshToki Wright
For years now, Toki Wright has been one of the Twin Cities’ pre-eminent promoters of hip-hop as a culture, from founding Yo! The Movement to his recent work as the program coordinator for McNally Smith’s brand new hip-hop department. He’s also been blessing tracks with killer guest verses (Sims’ “Market Made Murder” and P.O.S.’s “Ants” to name two) since forever, but don’t expect him to stay out of the spotlight for very long as a rapper in his own right; his Rhymesayers debut, A Different Mirror, set to drop June 9.

Buck 65
Back in the mid-’90s, it seemed like Dream Warriors were going to be the beginning and end of Canadian hip-hop, but Buck 65 (along with K-Os, K’naan, and others) are making a case for north-of-the-border rap that’s more than just a re-definition of a boombastic jazz style. His brainy and abstract approach has found him collaborating with a diverse array of artists, and even dancing with Feist in the video for “One Evening,” and who wouldn’t want to do that?