![After several years of hustling, Minneapolis rapper Sean Anonymous has earned his more prominent status with several high-profile gigs this summer. He posed for pictures on Thursday, May 30, 2013, in uptown in Minneapolis, Minn. ] (RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER * reneejones@startribune.com)](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/27QNBGY7U4O2264X6ZU7SPGVHI.jpg?&w=1080)
Maybe the biggest stage of all when you're in seventh grade, the school bus is where Sean Anonymous got his first taste of rapper fame.
"We got bored rapping to the same hip-hop songs on the radio over and over, so we started freestyling our own words over them," recounted the real-life Sean Quinn, 26, son of a North Ireland immigrant and a native of Mound and Winona. "The other kids reacted like I was doing something miraculous. And I was pretty bad, actually."
It's no miracle that a decade and a half later, Mr. Anonymous has earned more legitimate notoriety. After several nose-to-the-grindstone years of steady gigging and recording — including a short stint on last year's Warped Tour — his well-schooled efforts are paying off with his busiest summer yet.
Following a headlining set at the Memory Lanes Block Party two weeks ago, the scrawny, bespectacled, tattooed, pierced-lipped MC has a handful of gigs over the next two weeks that will put him in front of an unusually wide range of audiences: an opening slot with hippie rockers Roster McCabe at the Skyway Theater on Friday; a dressed-up set at Voltage: Fashion Amplified at First Avenue on Saturday; another warm-up gig with collegiate Colorado rappers the Flobots at the Cabooze next Thursday, then an afternoon slot at the Stone Arch Festival next Saturday.
As was the case at Memory Lanes, the Voltage and Stone Arch sets will pair him with the improv rock band Dream Crusher, just one of a variety of collaborators the freestyling rapper has enlisted. He also records and occasionally performs with the trio Wide Eyes, featuring MC Tony Phantom and burgeoning producer/beatmaker Dimitry Killstorm. He's working on a new EP with Chicago rapper Phillip Morris. His solo shows usually feature DJ Name and such regular guests as Lizzo of the Chalice and Rapper Hooks (a k a Truthbetold) of Tribe & Big Cats.
Ironically, he said, all these different partners are "helping teach me more about who I am."
"I'm learning more and more from each person I work with, and I think getting better and better," Sean said, echoing a mantra often heard from Eyedea, whom he cites as one of his biggest influences.
Like many rappers his age, Sean witnessed and performed some of his earliest gigs at the defunct Dinkytowner Cafe while still a teenager. He finally brought his Anonymous name into the limelight with last summer's playful yet hard-hitting seven-song EP, "Anonymo." The fruit of yet another musical collaboration — with Cincinnati's DJ Corbitt, who also has made beats for Saigon and Bun B — the EP ranges in style from the lustful horndog track "Sunny" to the weedy "Hot to Death" to the guitar-licked rap-about-rap "No B.S.," which featured elder cohorts Blueprint and Abstract Rude.
