After filling up a field outside Canterbury Park with 30,000 fans in recent years at its annual Soundset Festival, Minneapolis-based hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment is moving indoors to try to pack Target Center on Dec. 4 to mark its 20th anniversary.
The company's co-founding rap group Atmosphere will head up the arena celebration alongside other local favorites such as Brother Ali, P.O.S., Prof, I Self Devine, Los Nativos and Toki Wright and most of the nationwide indie-rap stars who have also recorded for the label, including Aesop Rock, Freeway, Evidence and Dilated Peoples, Musab and Bluprint.
Tickets to the all-ages Friday night concert, including general-admission arena floor access, are all priced at $20 save for some $100 VIP passes that come with a goodie bag and special access. Rhymesayers is offering pre-sale tickets to subscribers starting Wednesday at 10 a.m. The rest go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via Target Center's in-house system AXS.com.
Here's the full lineup for the Rhymesayers 20 concert in alphabetical order:
Abstract Rude, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Battlecats, BK One, Blueprint, Boom Bap Project, Brother Ali, deM atlaS, Dilated Peoples, DJ Abilities, Evidence, Felt, Freeway, Grayskul, Grieves, Hail Mary Mallon, I Self Devine, Jake One, K-Salaam, Los Nativos, Micranots, Mr. Dibbs, Musab, P.O.S, Prof, Soul Position, the Uncluded and Toki Wright.
Rhymesayers kicked off its 20th anniversary celebration back in March at the South by Southwest Music Conference, where an industry panel was held in its honor followed by a nighttime performance showcase that found Public Enemy legend Chuck D watching from the sidelines. On the panel, Atmosphere frontman Slug (Sean Daley, also the label's co-founder) humbly bragged about the fact he and Rhymesayers have "outlasted by 10 years" most of the other indie-rap acts from when they started out.
"It's not because I was better," Slug said, "it's because I love this so much and gave it everything I have."
