P.O.S built his reputation as an innovator, with an unlikely punk rock past and expressive, honest content. He re-earns the accolades with every release. He manages to capture his charisma on his records; they’re driving and sincere, the dark moments counterbalanced by some giggling banter with the engineer.

As a little kid, Stef developed a fascination with an older cousin’s bass guitar. Stef was allowed to take it home and he banged on it happily for years before realizing that it was intended to be played through an amp. “I just thought it was supposed to be a quiet instrument.” As a teenager, he fell hard for punk rock. Minor Threat, At the Drive-In, Refused, Kid Dynamite. He played in a series of hardcore bands, sometimes as a drummer, sometimes on guitar and vocals. From the start, he preferred basement shows to club gigs. Simultaneously, he pursued hip hop, rapping in the hallways and after school with classmates who would eventually found Doomtree Records. P.O.S released his first rap record, Ipecac Neat, on Doomtree in 2003. Soon it was re-released and widely distributed on Rhymesayers Entertainment. He built on this momentum with the release of the albums Audition (2005) and Never Better (2009).

Like many great rappers, P.O.S creates his own self-contained little microcosm-his characters become familial to us; we get in on his slang and inside jokes. His mother and his son Jacob emerge as familiar personalities. We know his politics too: P.O.S doesn’t hesitate to call out the compounding absurdities of pop culture, either with a little friendly ribbing or with a Molotov cocktail. On Never Better he drops deft one-liners that cut to the quick of America’s stuff-obsessed culture, “Can’t take it with them can they?

Some critics will be eager to categorize P.O.S’ work as a hybrid, a crossover of some kind. But it’s probably not. P.O.S is a rapper with range, he’s a real musician and an unstoppable performer. For him, genres are as they ever were: permeable.

Dessa's first full-length record, A Badly Broken Code, introduced her to a national audience as a rapper, a singer, and a potent, imaginative lyricist. It earned a binder of superlative reviews from sources like NPR, The Seattle Times, and AM New York. To tour the album, she assembled a small cast of talented instrumentalists to re-interpret the disc for a dynamic live concert. Part rap show and part cabaret, the elegant presentation charmed both audiences and critics—not a negligible feat in hip hop, a genre with its share of purists.
Castor, The Twin captures these new arrangements for ten of Dessa's strongest previously released songs. It also includes "The Beekeeper," the haunting advance single from Dessa's new album due in 2012. Vibraphone, piano, viola, and stand-up bass give the record a classical, sometimes orchestral sound for a beautiful and somber effect. The album is immediately identifiable as an intimate recording of live players, with fingers sliding on frets and raw, expressive vocals. The organic instrumentation pushes Dessa's lyrics forward, showcasing the imagery and narratives that define her as a songwriter and an emcee.
The album title references the twin brothers Castor and Pollux of Roman mythology, the pair of bright stars in the Gemini constellation. Pollux was part god, a fighter with metal hands. Castor was the mortal of the pair, but the two were inseparable. After cutting her teeth with her Doomtree cohorts behind the boards, this is Dessa's first record with a wholly organic sound—more tender, human versions of the best material she's released so far.

"Enchanting."
–Chicago Tribune

"Dessa has emerged as one of the most diverse and talented artists in indie rap."
–URB

"A one-woman powerhouse...with a literary sensibility and an aversion to genre clichés"
–Utne Reader

"If wordsmith-songbird Dessa isn't the future of hip-hop, she should be."
-Insight News

"Profound and moving"
-Star Tribune

"equal parts Ani Difranco and Mos Def"
-Rift Magazine

"Dessa combines the dry wit of Dorothy Parker with the beat of Mos Def"
-Minnesota Public Radio

"clear-eyed candor...understated realism and dark wit."
-Culturebully.com

"witty, sardonic, and keenly observant of human behavior."
-TheDecider.com

Restless and passionate but with an unflinching realism at his core, Sims has seen enough of life to know there are no easy answers. His second full-length release, Bad Time Zoo, out February 15th on Doomtree Records, reflects this rapper’s ongoing quest for solid understanding in a society on the brink of dystopia. For Sims, it’s been a long road.

Andrew Sims grew up in the working-class Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins, Minnesota. His parents were both musicians with problems of their own, and Sims often had to look out for himself and his younger brother. “I was super short-fused,” he remembers. “I got in fights almost every day until I was about 13.”

He found solace in rap and R&B music, nurturing a love for mainstream hits as well as then-underground artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan. His parents didn’t approve of his new love, however, so he built a secret stash of cassette mixtapes that he traded to kids at school. He soon found a gift for rhyme and begin channeling his aggression into feisty, kinetic wordplay.

His rap habit quickly grew from playground cyphers to recorded projects. In high school, he met a local producer and rapper named P.O.S. who would sell him beats for $30 a pop and let him record at his house for free. Eventually, their home-recording experiment blossomed into a full-on musical enterprise that would pull in other aspiring artists and help put Minneapolis hip-hop on the map.

Enter Doomtree. Hailing from the same untamed Minneapolis indie music scene that spawned both punk legends the Replacements and, 20 years later, hip-hop powerhouse Rhymesayers, Doomtree has become one of the most trusted and influential names in grassroots hip-hop.

Since its birth in 2002, Doomtree has grown from a CD-R-slinging, fast-food-fueled DIY collective into a tightly knit, business-savvy operation. In addition to Sims and P.O.S., Doomtree’s roster includes some of the most daring artists working in hip-hop today: Lazerbeak, Dessa, Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, and Cecil Otter.

In a genre that all too often rewards imitation over innovation, Doomtree’s artists strive for originality without sacrificing mass appeal. As a result, fans of Doomtree have come to expect uncommon hip-hop delivered in clever, club-rocking doses, and Bad Time Zoo will not disappoint.

Setting himself as spokesman for a generation fraught by vapid commercialism, political cynicism, and the paradoxical power of technology to both connect us and drive us apart, Sims seeks a path out of the disappointment that plagues modern life. The time of plenty, inbox full / So why do I feel so goddamn empty? he demands on opening track “Future Shock.”

But while he casts himself as an alienated prophet, make no mistake: Sims’ message is of empowerment, hope, and badass beats. The results are epically infectious.

Over the pulse and sway of Lazerbeak’s urgent, expansive production, Sims raises 50-story verses and swings wrecking-ball choruses. With scenes straight from Darwin’s nightmares – people as animals gorging in the streets (“The Veldt”) – Bad Time Zoo is not so much a hip-hop album as a teeming, beat-driven urban wilderness.

On the horn-sample-driven first single, “Burn It Down,” Sims raps like a red-eyed city planner who just downed his eighth Red Bull and Adderall cocktail and is on the street corner calling for destruction before renewal. Or take the thumping, wickedly funny “One Dimensional Man,” an indictment of complacent liberals: You did your part, you gave your hundred bucks to NPR / You joined a co-op now, bought the hybrid car. (For the record, Sims votes Democrat and drives a hybrid.)

But lest you think you need an advanced degree and a machete to enter Bad Time Zoo, Sims keeps his narratives grounded and real, and Lazerbeak’s musical compositions would sound just as good on a club PA as headphones. Just spin “Love My Girl,” a pop confection that juxtaposes dark observations on the dating life with a surprisingly sweet candy center.

A pop-culture omnivore, Sims cites influences that range from the sci-fi of Ray Bradbury, to the films of David Lynch, to the 1940s graphic novels of Will Eisner. But most of all, Sims listens to the world around him.

“I draw a lot more from human interaction than I do from music,” he says. “I listen and try to understand how people function.”

Like all good writers, Sims has an ear for what makes us human.

“What are your soft spots? When are you at your most defensive, your most unabashedly happy or proud?” he elaborates. “Or when I see someone try to cobble a defense together when they’re hurting. Those moments are noteworthy to me. I try to pay attention to them.”

Pay attention to Sims, and you’ll be better for it.

In his music and his manner, Cecil Otter seems to belong to a different era of American history. Usually found brooding under the shadow of a fedora, he’s the kind of guy who’s got a five o’clock shadow by mid-morning. At times, the Minneapolis based emcee/producer feels more like a boxcar storyteller, or the down on his luck country singer in the last dive bar on earth. His character is possessed by some lost American spirit of honesty and romanticism: he takes only one meal a day and prefers for his correspondence to be scrawled on bar napkins rather than in emails.

Cecil fell in love with hip-hop at 8 years old, when his 14 year old sister ran away from home and left him with a box of rap tapes. From there he began writing stories, and the stories later became rhymes. Inspired by underground legends like Ant (of Atmosphere) and Sixtoo, Cecil delved into the crates and circuits of drum machines to craft his own haunting sound and unique style. Later, he would earn his stripes as a co-founder of the Doomtree crew, one of the twin cities’ most dominant underground rap outfits.

Cecil’s most recent collaborations with Doomtree (on the collective’s self-titled disc) appeared on Billboard’s regional Heatseekers charts, as the #1 hip hop album on CMJ, charted #23 on iTunes’ rap charts, and made an appearance in the top 100 of the Mediaguide AAA Albums. But it was the arrival of Cecil’s debut solo album “Rebel Yellow” that announced this unlikely troubadour as a fully formed and utterly unique presence in the world of independent hip hop.

“Rebel Yellow”, completely self-produced, is a work full of nostalgia and intrigue. With a bare-bones, bittersweet precision, Cecil unfolds a seedy universe of heartbreak and illusive redemption, delivering his verses with the self-assured, unhurried cadence of a man walking to the goldrush. In his beats, delicate guitar lines surface and submerge; vinyl crackles like dying embers; and the snare drum sneaks a little flourish but keeps simple time while the audience turns to see what it has missed. Laid end-to-end, these tracks speak of restlessness and a nigh-apocalyptic sonic sensibility. In the end, Cecil Otter is a compelling musician for the same reasons he’s good with cards: The technique runs on charm, patience, intuition, and precision.

Most recently, Cecil’s cast his lot with Strange Famous Records, teaming up with label-owner Sage Francis to give the devil a run for his money. SFR has agreed to re-release Rebel Yellow, get it proper distribution, while working toward the release of Cecil’s follow up album, “Porcelain Revolver.”

With mainstream appeal, surgical precision, and unshakable crew love, Mike Mictlan is an unparalleled force in the underground. His live show is a spectacle of sweat and laughter and fury and communion. You could search every venue in every city, but you will not find an emcee in rap music with more heart than Mike Mictlan. No hype, just a simple guarantee. He believes in the music, the movement, and in his crew of friends. To see him in person, and to hear his voice, makes it hard not to believe it too.

Mictlan is a native to Southern California and a current proud resident of South Minneapolis. His style has roots in both scenes. In his delivery, he’s a rapper’s rapper and a technician. He can stick fast stuccato runs, flip a pattern, and freestyle long after everyone else has gone to bed. But he’s also a writer who doesn’t shy from big themes and personal narrative. In his latest collaboration with Lazerbeak, Hand Over Fist, Mictlan employs his understated poetry to epic effect. The album goes by in a pageant of imagery: of fire and flight, long odds and close calls.

Mike met the founding members of Doomtree during his junior year in high school. In response to his deliquent streak, Mike’s parents had sent him from their L.A. home to live with his uncle in Minnesota. (No, the Fresh Prince storyline is not lost on us, please save your letters.) Living with his uncle and attending Hopkins High, he met P.O.S, Lazerbeak, MK Larada, and Paper Tiger. Although Mictlan soon returned to L.A., the Doomtree family tree had taken root. As the collective gained momentum in Minneapolis, Mictlan received more and more phone calls urging him to move to the Midwest. Five years later, he got off a plane with 2 duffel bags and a footlocker, ready to go wherever Doomtree was headed.

Mictlan now tours with the group and as a solo performer, making converts and fans in every city.

Lazerbeak is a thug. Do not be deceived by the nice-guy introductions backstage. Beak is responsible for some of the hardest lavabangers in hip hop, period. Catchy, rib-crushing, filthy.

In his basement workshop, Beak works mostly with a MPC2000XL. He layers propulsive, hard-hitting drums with driving guitar and keyboard melodies. He paces after the addition of each element, ducking to avoid the overhead pipes, playing air drums, and calculating his next layer.

Beak's sequencing is a large part of his sound. "After you've got the main structure, to make it a real song, you have to take it all part again. It's like a battle with the beat, every time." And Beak always wins. When it's over, the effect is some helicopter-at-the-omnitheater shit. He'll take a beat down to its most essential elements before letting it off the leash to explode into anthemic proportions.

Lazerbeak got involved with the Doomtree crew through his high school friendship with Stef (P.O.S). But by then he'd already been playing music for years. Since 8th grade he played with The Plastic Constellations, the indie rock group that would go on to tour the country, signed to French Kiss Records. Stef, having heard Lazerbeak's music with TPC, encouraged him to start making beats. Beak got a loan from his folks to buy his first MPC from Guitar Center. Stef came over in the afternoon to show him the ropes. No looking back.

To date, Lazerbeak has produced over 400 beats. His production appears on almost every Doomtree release, including all three of P.O.S' solo albums. He's now completing the production for the upcoming Sims solo release and working on a solo endeavor of his own.

Most recently, Doomtree released Lazerbeak's collaboration with Mike Mictlan. The two schemed for years to write and record the disc. For much of that time Mike was living in L.A. Lazerbeak sent Mike beat CDs in the mail. Mike rapped his verses to Lazerbeak over the phone. Big dreams, big phone bills. Now the fruit of their labor is available in all its glory as Hand Over Fist. Legend Recognize Legend.

It is 1996. You are in a rusted-out Corolla with a crossfader apoxied to the dashboard. Killsadie, De La Soul, and Lifter Puller are maxing out the speakers. The window does not go down, no AC. He is singing, and smiling like a motherfucker. Welcome to Paper Tiger’s car.

Paper Tiger is Doomtree’s live DJ, our resident graphic designer, and one of our esteemed producers. Paper grew up with music at home, as the son of Minneapolis rocker Johnny Rey. As a teenager, Paper was friend to P.O.S, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan and MK Larada. After high school, the four lived in the now [in]famous Doomtree House—a den of creativity, beer cans, stencils, trash, and neighborhood concern.

As a producer, Paper Tiger’s style reveals his varied tastes. Listen for the influences of mid-school rap, electronic music, his friends. His snares snap, and his samples are distinguished by unusual textures and treatments. The music he makes ranges from the beautiful lamentations like Canonade (from his False Hopes release) to club-fire bangers like Game Over with Mike Mictlan, or Low light / Low Life off “Never Better” by P.O.S.

As a graphic artist, Paper keeps the Doomtree website, posters, and flyers on point. Sunglasses, skateboards, sneakers, NYC, Helvetica—all true of Mr. Tiger.

His 7-inch, Cloquet, was released at Blowout 5.

His first full length album “Made Like Us” was releases July 2010.
Paper Tiger is Doomtree's live DJ, our resident graphic designer, and one of our esteemed producers. Paper grew up with music at home, as the son of Minneapolis rocker Johnny Rey. As a teenager, Paper was friend to P.O.S, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan and MK Larada. After high school, the four lived in the now [in]famous Doomtree House—a den of creativity, beer cans, stencils, trash, and neighborhood concern.

As a producer, Paper Tiger's style reveals his varied tastes. Listen for the influences of mid-school rap, electronic music, his friends. His snares snap, and his samples are distinguished by unusual textures and treatments. The music he makes ranges from the beautiful lamentations like Canonade (from his False Hopes release) to club-fire bangers like Game Over with Mike Mictlan, or Low light / Low Life off "Never Better" by P.O.S.

As a graphic artist, Paper keeps the Doomtree website, posters, and flyers on point. Sunglasses, skateboards, sneakers, NYC, Helvetica—all true of Mr. Tiger.

His 7-inch, Cloquet, was released at Blowout 5.

His first full length album "Made Like Us" was releases July 2010.

He's just a man who grew up listening to all types of music; Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk, Pop, Country, R&B and everything else in between. The only music that captured his attention the most was of course Hip-Hop. Growing up in a suburban town (Edwardsville, IL) he was always told that going through the educational system was the best way to achieve happiness. Graduate high school, and then college; after that everything will be fine. He graduated high school and felt a void that only music could fill. He opted to follow his dreams and focus on being an emcee with something to say. He couldn't pinpoint a single artist that inspires his sound, but here are a few that have helped. Jay-Z for his ability to paint a picture with words, Lupe Fiasco and common for their ability to bring consciousness into mainstream music and still be well respected, The Beatles, Commodores, The O' Jays, Marvin Gaye, the list could go on forever with who has influenced him, but we'll just let the music speak for itself and you can decide who it reminds you of!