For most of hip-hop’s 50-year history, much attention (for better or worse) has been focused on three main regions. “East Coast” (consisting primarily of New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia), “West Coast” (the Bay Area had its moments of mainstream notoriety, but really only LA), and “The South” (covering a dozen different sounds and styles from Texas to Florida). Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, an underground scene has been booming in Minnesota, outside the national spotlight.
At the forefront of this culture-bending, often forward-looking movement is the Minneapolis/St. Louis movement. Paul-based label Lime Sayers. According to multiple sources, the company was founded by him in 1995, although there is some confusion among the founders as to when it was founded. But Sean Daly (aka Slug), Anthony Davis (aka Ant) (both collectively known as Atmosphere), Musav Saad (Sub The Artist), and Brent Sayers (Siddique) are officially Lyme Sayers. Each time they formed, they opened the door to new paradigms in hip-hop. Hop pioneered a fresh approach to the creation and distribution of rap music, making him one of hip-hop’s longest-running independents and an icon of his label’s power.
The influence of the Lyme Sayers on hip-hop music and culture as a whole is often underestimated, but it cannot be underestimated. Siddiq and Slug, who kindly agreed to be interviewed by Uproxx to discuss their role in the history of hip-hop over the past 50 years, are reluctant to comment on their importance to hip-hop. Any Hip-Hop 50 celebration would go something like this. Their contributions cannot be overlooked. Home to pillars of the indie rap scene, from Aesop Rock to MF DOOM, the label has produced and distributed hip-hop-centric sound sets as well as projects for artists pushing the boundaries of hip-hop. . It is the first and longest running festival of its kind.
Rhyme Sayers artists don’t often receive the same level of recognition as Golden Age pioneers like Gang Starr, NWA, Public Enemy, Rakim & Eric B. It will be difficult to find. I don’t consider at least one of the label’s artists to be influenced by him. In this interview, Slug and Siddique detail how the Rhyme Sayers rose to underground legend, reminisce about their favorite moments in hip-hop history, and talk about the fourth region of hip-hop. We consider what constitutes the forgotten sound of a certain Mighty Midwest.
We do this on the official 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s birth, and Limesayers Entertainment plays a big part in it. So if you could sum up in one sentence the impact of Siddiq, Slug and Lyme Thayer on his first fifty years of hip-hop evolution, what would it be?
Slug: it’s not fair. I am not allowed to answer that question. Anyone who has talked to me knows how I answer such questions. I’m going to take it lightly.
I am here to empathize. I’m here to observe it, to take it, to empathize in the sense that I can understand it, but I know it’s better than empowering myself to actually talk about it. My reality is my reality, so I don’t know what impact we have on this culture we’re celebrating. If you want to talk about the impact I’ve had on some of the MC’s, or some of the people who are trying to do the same as I am, you know how I affect certain branches of the tree.
I think my influence on just a few of the other advocates who tried to do what I do is just being one of those faces who tried to prove to yourself that you can do this too. . that you can do it too.
Siddique: I totally agree with you. So I think it’s always been part of our MO. We always thought it was like hip-hop with workers joining in the sense that we never felt entitled. Hip-hop has had a huge influence on me, so I don’t know if it influenced hip-hop, but I never try to define my role. As a student and custodian of what raised me, I can’t even think about it.
So if other people can see it and they can glean from what we did, that would be great, but I don’t think I could do that. . I love the phrase “you can do this too”, but I want to add all the caveats I’ve come across. Because when we spoke, you just couldn’t do it, you had to experience it. Fuck you can do that.
Well, it’s hard to define the impact we had or had. But I hope it will. I hope so, but it’s hard for me to define.
I’d love to hear your impressions of what has changed for the better as you guys have been doing hip-hop. What went wrong? What do you hope will continue to change or evolve in his next 50 years of hip-hop?
Slug: I’ll be one of those old heads who pompously says, “I’m better now.” When I say it, I’m not saying quality. Beyond the sound, I remember not only what the music was specifically about, but also the personality and culture of this music. What was it that drew me in and made me a true believer?
It challenged the status quo. It challenged what was happening on many levels.
And as far as I know, it still continues. And that is its job. I don’t want to say it’s the job because I’m not here to call anything out, but what I mean is that it’s a big part of what we want young people to have access to. There is.
Siddique: Yes I agree too. I mean, thankfully, I never once felt like I fell into the old-headed category of just being mad at my kids. I’m very in tune with what’s going on, but I’m also very connected to the Golden Age. that it was all imagination. It was all creation. There was nothing there, no blueprints, so everything was original and that was the beauty of its birth. Looking at it today, I think: “In terms of creative energy, there has never been so much free time for someone doing this form of art.”
After a while there was a box. It’s like if you want to be part of hip-hop, you have to exist within this box. If you are outside the box, you are seen as something out of the box. The box is gone. People may still want to discuss it, but the reality is that the box is gone. To me it’s beautiful. Because, in a way, it brings us back to that starting point, where 50 years later we are still here, completely innovative, creative, capable of producing new things.
How important is it to you to be a beacon for not only independent homebrew raps, but hip-hop places not necessarily close to media centers? What’s going on with hip-hop?” is my polite way of saying.
Siddique: In some ways, our success and existence could not have been foreseen. So… in a way, maybe it was because that was the spread and influence of hip-hop. it was everywhere.When we were kids, there was no corner the shit didn’t seep through Breakin’ We were doing it through art forms like rap and graffiti. These things have spread to every aspect of this country, indeed all over the world.
If you look at the success we’ve had so far, coming from places like Minnesota, coming from the empty Midwest, especially not in the hip-hop that comes out of here. I think there is something to suggest. Despite the apparently vast musical history outside of the state, with Flight Time, Prince and Bob Dylan, the industry itself is absent.
I think I’ve always thought of this as something that you can do from a real place because you don’t have to follow anything. And I think he was able to make us stand out in a unique way the second time around. I think that the fact that we were able to show it to the world and spread it all over the country is similar to what Sean said earlier, “You can do it, too.”
Slug: I was listening to Siddiq. It got me thinking about how there was a time when everyone, myself included, was rapping with an East Coast accent like they were from New York. Then some of us started rapping like we were from LA. We started parroting what Freestyle Fellowship was doing and parroting what Dre was doing.
Then something happened down south. Atlanta had sound, New Orleans had sound, France, Paris rapping in French. In Australia they started rapping with their own accent. And as time went on, every pocket, every scene finally broke free from the chains of New York and Los Angeles and began to find their own space.
This city is no exception. It was the same. The main difference is that we were in the middle of it when we started finding sounds. There were still a lot of groups here that were kind of from the South, and there were still a lot of people rapping like them—that had the New York “R.”
But as some groups became more popular and others started listening, we started seeing a scene here and the sound started to develop. It’s natural. But I think the difference is that none of the groups here have completely destroyed the sound. Elements of the Minneapolis sound can be seen among artists who have become big names from around the country.
Over the past 50 years, we all have great memories of what hip-hop has brought us on a professional and personal level. If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you could share a few. Much obliged.
Slug: Me, it gave me an identity. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have had an identity. Living in South Minneapolis, having access to this music, immersing myself in graffiti, and interacting with other people, I think has given me perspective and access to some of my own imagination and creativity. And I was just as into The Fat Boys as I was to Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” When you were nine, it was all fun music. But as I’ve gotten older, it’s given me a space to get away from all the shit and gather with other people who are finding ways to get creative with all the shit as well. Given.
Siddique: I think the first time was when I heard “The Message” for the first time, walked over to the record store on the corner, bought a 12-inch, and thought, “What is this?” I felt like I was visualizing New York in the early 1980s. Mele I could see everything Mel was talking about. She wasn’t hearing, she was seeing. And I just… it blew my mind.
The other is completely random, but it never leaves my mind. I think it was Rocksteady anniversary. I don’t remember the exact year. We were out in New York, just handing out CDs and stuff, and MOP was playing after parties. Well, I’m… and I’m trying to remember the venue. It was like a venue on the second floor. In New York I had to go upstairs.
Think MOP in the heyday of ‘Ante Up’ in New York. I felt like I was about to fall off the floor. Like I said, it was his second floor in the venue and I could feel the floor doing this. [wobbles his hand], and I just… “This doesn’t feel safe.” But I never… just energy? I will never be able to explain the validity of the energy I witnessed in that room at that moment. I will never be able to explain it and make someone feel what I felt.
