Twin Cities Independent Music Week on MTV2: Soundset 2009 Highlights + More (Videos)

Rhymesayers just announced that MTV2 is currently putting on Twin Cities Independent Music Week. I remember hearing that they were getting some footage at Soundset 2009, but I was unsure of what it was all going towards. MTV2 just put up about 8 videos on their website, and because this is a pretty special occasion, I'm reposting all of the hip-hop videos on Midwest Broadcast. Plenty of Atmosphere, P.O.S., and Brother Ali interviews and performance footage. Also, If you hit their website, there are also two additional videos focusing on Minneapolis indie rock band Tapes 'N Tapes.

Highlights of Soundset 2009

Atmosphere: "The Waitress" (Live at Soundset 2009)

Brother Ali: "Self Taught" (Live at Soundset 2009)

Rhymesayers Gives P.O.S. His Voice

P.O.S.: "Optimist" (Live at Soundset 2009)

Inside P.O.S.'s Home Studio

Toki Wright: Interview with Mr. Peter Parker at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Let's keep this train moving.

Thank you, Toki Wright, for being an extremely well spoken hip-hop artist.

P.O.S.: Interview with Mr. Peter Parker at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Mr. Peter Parker continues his Soundset 2009 exposed series.

PREVIOUSLY - P.O.S.: "Goodbye" (Official Music Video)

Jake One & Freeway: Interview with Peter Parker at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Mr. Peter Parker continues his "Soundset '09 Exposed" video series with an interview. He asks the same questions to Freeway as he did to Jake One. No shots. The Stimulus Package should be out in August. EARLY!

Brother Ali: Interview with Mr. Peter Parker at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Last time, Peter Parker dropped his video interview with Atmosphere. This time it's him speaking with Ali.

Soundset 2009 Recap (Video)

Rhymesayers put this one together.

Atmosphere: Interview with Peter Parker at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Peter Parker interviewed (if you want to call this an interview) Slug and Ant separately during Soundset 2009. Don't get to see Ant doing the talking often. He was a little preoccupied with his cigarette and corndogs though.

Brother Ali: Two Unreleased Songs from 'Street Preacher' LP (Live at Soundset 2009)

I always have mixed feelings about recording video at concerts. Sometimes I go to shows and really document the hell out of it; but I always end up feeling a little guilty afterward. It's a tough call to make between the honest notion that only paying ticket holders should be allowed to experience a concert, and the demand for nonstop media in today's YouTube age. This year at Soundset I busted out my camera only to take photos, except for two occasions. Brother Ali performed two unreleased songs from his upcoming full-length LP, Street Preacher, which is slated for a fall release date. I decided to record some video of both of these songs. Shouts to my man Brok for the camera work — he had better position in the crowd than I did.

Unfortunately, I don't have names for either of the tracks yet. The first song features a very bouncy, horn-dominated beat, and Ali spitting an uptempo flow pretty much nonstop for 3 minutes. The second song was a very fun live track. It's another thumping, soul-sampling song featuring a self-affirming, joyful Ali rapping and singing about his ever-increasing satisfaction with his life. It looks like Ali may have even been rapping at my camera during that song, but there's no telling. Overall, it looks like, unsurprisingly, Ali is busy cooking up some incredible material for Street Preacher. You can stay updated with all his progressions on the album by following his Twitter.

Soundset 2009 Recap (Photos)

You already know just about everything I'm about to say. Soundset 2009 was incredible. Great performances from (most of) the artists. Got quite sunburned. Legs felt like cooked spaghetti by the end of the day. And so on.

I opted not to get a press pass, and spent the entire day in the thick of the crowd watching the shows on the main stage. My biggest regret is not seeing a couple of sets on the Fifth Element side stage – mainly One Be Lo, Unknown Prohpets and Cunninlynguists, as those are the main acts I had never seen before. However I also regret not catching Sims, Blue Scholars and Heiruspecs, who are all great live. The reason for me not catching those shows is that during P.O.S.'s lively set, in a moment of pure serendipity, my friends and I ended up getting pushed to literally the front row. Although in retrospect, Sage Francis, El-P, and much to my dismay, DOOM, were all arguably "skippable" performances, we decided it was in our best interests to not sacrifice our great crowd position to see the shows on the side stage. While, I was up there, I tried snapping a few "point and shoot" photos with my low budget camera. I'm no professional, but they ended up half decent. If you want to see some great photo coverage of the day, though, go to Jules Ammel Visuals or the Rhymesayers Flickr. I'll leave you with a few thoughts I had about Soundset 2009, as well as my photos.

• Toki Wright was one of the better pure performers of the day. He reallys pours his heart out in his shows: jumping and dancing around, using the entire stage, working the crowd, etc. Great stuff. If only the fans were more familiar with his songs.
• As per usual, DJ Abilities was the true star during E&A's set. While Eyedea gets a little quirky during live shows, Abilities spent a solid five minutes amazing everyone with his technical prowess on the wheels of steel. The guy nevers slips up.
• Speaking of never slipping up, Mr. Dibbs absolutely put it the fuck down during his turntable sting during El-P's set.
  
• P.O.S. may be on the verge of breaking through the Rhymesayers ranks, approaching Slug and Brother Ali's levels of stardom. Maybe.
• Sage Francis seemed to be legitimately enjoying himself up there.
• In the biggest disappointment of the day, DOOM's set was pretty terrible. First off, 75% of the crowd didn't seem familiair with DOOM's Rock The Bells scandal last summer, and thus didn't understand his whole imposter joke. DOOM's hype man was overbearing and annoying. The sound was all distorted, and the bass was overbearing, making it impossible to decipher his lyrics unless you truly knew them word-for-word. He seemed unconcerned with hammering home a truly special performance, and more worried about getting his set over with and getting back in his SUV. Because his set was one of my top three most anticipated of the day, I couldn't have been more let down.
• Why the fuck did Freeway and Jake One not play a one of their songs from White Van Music. It was the perfect opportunity to bring out Brother Ali for "The Truth," and he didn't even do "How We Ride!" Although I still loved Freeway's set, that was discouraging.
• I loved Brother Ali's quote: "Jay-Z put of Freeway's first album, 50 Cent put out his second album, and Rhymesayers is putting out his third album." Although it's technically going to be his fourth, Rhymesayers have established themselves as indie heavyweights in this rap game.
• One of my top three songs of the day happened when Slug came out during Ali's set and they did "The Believer."
  
• The Pharcyde were the opposite of DOOM, and were one of the biggest highlights of the day. Great show. Great.
• I've seen Atmosphere perform about six or seven times, on multiple continents, and I can now say this confidently: No one, with the exception of Jay-Z, can control a crowd better than Slug. It may be because Atmosphere's audience is incredibly loyal, and it may seem like that because I was watching an Atmosphere concert in Minnesota, of all places. But, Slug had 15,000 hands in the air waving side to side, and probably every other person in the crowd knew at least some of the lyrics, if not most. And I saw him do the exact same thing in London. Slug can officially rock a show with the best of them.
  

Kristoff Krane: "Easy Way Out" (Live at Soundset 2009)

It's here's another one! Local artist Kristoff Krane performed his single "Easy Way Out" at the Fifth Element Stage during Soundset 2009. It was also nice to see him get some love on the main stage during Eyedea & Abilities' set.

P.O.S., Sims, & Dessa: "Low Light Low Life" (Live at Soundset 2009)

I found this while doing a little YouTube searching for Soundset 2009 footage. I'll continue to post videos when they're of relatively high quality. Feel free to forward videos on to me, too. Particularly if they're of the Fifth Element stage, which I was not able to check out.

In this video, a few members of the Doomtree collective get down to "Low Light Low Life," off P.O.S.'s Never Better. The crowd went nuts when Dessa started rapping. Got it from Mind Inversion.

P.O.S. and Toki Wright: Backstage Interviews at Soundset 2009 (Video)

Via the City Pages blog Gimme Noise. P.O.S. talks about Soundset, touring, and current projects, with a review of his performance by his son Jake. In the next video, Toki Wright talks about being signed to Rhymesayers and what that means for a hip-hop artist.

Atmosphere: "Always Coming Back Home To You" (Live at Soundset 2009)

This literally happened less than two hours ago. It was the last song Atmosphere performed during their show-ending performance at an incredible Soundset 2009. I've got some various photos/other media to show, and I'll probably write a little show recap tomorrow. I actually spotted myself in this video, too. I was in the front row at the main stage for basically the show, but I won't bother trying to describe where to spot me.

Brother Ali: "Pedigree" (Live at Soundset 2009)

I'm posting this video last, but putting it behind the Atmosphere video to keep things in semi-chronological order, as if that's important. I can spot myself grooving and rapping along with Ali in this video, too. What a day.

P.O.S.: "Goodbye" (Live at Soundset 2009)

P.O.S.'s set was the craziest of the day. Lots of pushing around, and overall chaos. He tore it up, though. People were loving it up front by the stage, but you can't really get that effect with the big picture view in this video.

Eyedea & Abilities: "This Story" (Live at Soundset 2009)

E&A were super live today. Amazing show, and great festival from Rhymesayers.

Blueprint: "Big Girls Need Love Too" (Live at Soundset 2009)

Printmatic's set this year was waaay better than last year's performance. He killed it this time around.

Toki Wright: "State of Emergency" (Live at Soundset 2009)

Soundset 2009: The Mixtape

I got another particular mixtape coming your way in a matter of hours....

The tracklist features nothing too exclusive, but is a good introduction if you're not familiar with all the artists on the Soundset bill. The likes of Brother Ali & Jake One, Atmosphere, P.O.S., One Be Lo, The Pharcyde, and more contribute tracks. Shouts to Jake Money, who I snatched the link from as well.

DOWNLOAD - Soundset 2009: The Mixtape

Soundset 2009 Promo Video

Thank you, Rhymesayers. Order your tickets here.