The Rhymesayers story

The year was 1995 when Atmosphere’s Slug and Ant, along with Saddiq and Musab Saad aka Beyond, formed a small label in their hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. That was the birth of Rhymesayers Entertainment. The people behind this small indie label were initially a local crew called Headshots consisting of musicians, producers, graffiti artists etc which began to expand its activities eventually forming Rhymesayers. Seeing the growth of hip hop and the turn things had taken since the early 90’s when certain people tried to take advantage of the situation looking for an opportunity to capitalize from it, the Rhymesayers founders decided to take their artistic endeavors in their own hands following the path of others such as the Wu Tang Clan that had already done so before them. Still up to this day they are dedicated, to a level of almost blind faith, to the concept of one being entirely responsible for their own work, and self-empowerment in every step of the process is the key in all the activities that shape the label’s image worldwide. The first Rhymesayers release was Beyond’s “Comparison” in 1996. One year later Atmosphere released their first album named Overcast which dropped like an atom bomb not only inside their hometown’s hip hop community, but also helping the duo to make a name for itself all around the United States after they began touring, quickly becoming one of underground hip hop’s most promising new asset at the time. Atmosphere moved on to record some of the label’s most notable releases including “God Loves Ugly” and one of my personal favorites “You can’t imagine how much fun we’re having”. The label started to grow as fast as no one could ever anticipate by “drafting” artists from all over the country such as Dj Abilities in 1997 and Brother Ali in 2000 among others, building up a solid roster. In 1999, the Rhymesayers Entertainment record store opened in Minneapolis under the name of Fifth Element carrying a wide range of hip hop artists both indie and commercial but also helping out local hip hop heroes by promoting their material. All the efforts that the label’s people put into this were finally rewarded in 2007 when Rhymesayers signed a contract with Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group in order for them to promote and distribute the label’s music on a much larger scale. Artists that are currently or have been part of the Rhymesayers family include Grayskul, MF Doom, the super duo Felt (a collaboration between Murs of the Living Legends and Slug), Evidence of the Dilated Peoples who released his latest album just a couple of weeks ago, and Soul Position that just like Atmosphere consists of RJD2 on the beats and Blueprint on the mic