For the first time since 2008, Rhymesayers Entertainment will not be hosting their annual Soundset Music Festival. Instead, they will focus all their energies and resources on their celebratory Rhymesayers Entertainment 25th anniversary set, which will take place later this year.
Since its inception in 2008, Soundset has functioned as a hip hop culture festival emanating from the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area. The festival has brought in hundreds of local and national talents to perform myriad diverse live sets and acts. Rhymesayers has curated the event to also include and highlight DJ, graffiti, live production, skateboarding and car cultures.
The inaugural Soundset event took place in 2008 in the parking lot of the Metrodome in Minneapolis, drawing approximately 12,000 fans. Since then, festival attendance has nearly tripled and attracted national and global audiences from all states and several other countries and territories. From 2009 to 2015, the event took place at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota. Since 2016, it has been held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The festival’s staple act since the inaugural event has been local hip hop duo Atmosphere, comprised of rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ and producer Ant (Anthony Davis), who have performed at all 12 Soundsets. The duo have been together since 1996 and released 10 studio albums. Their most recent, the 12-track Whenever, dropped December 12 and features the single, “Bde Make Ska.”
Atmosphere also co-founded Rhymesayers with fellow talents Sab the Artist (Musab Saad) and Siddiq (Brent Sayers) in 1995, and have since signed several artists and produced myriad hit albums and singles.
Little information has been provided about Rhymesayers Entertainment’s 25th anniversary event, but as a replacement for Soundset it should provide attendees with similar if not superior musical and cultural experiences.
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