We're the mayors of Dinkytown," New MC calls out as he makes his way to the front of the small Dinkytowner stage to join fellow local rapper Unicus. As he does, he almost hits his head on a low-hanging pipe.
New MC and Unicus form the group Kanser. They've seen a lot of stages, bars and house parties during their 11-year rap career, yet for these two veterans of the Interlock label, it's just part of the grind.
Kanser's beginnings were humble: New MC got some low quality recording equipment and Unicus began recording with him.
"I had come upon some equipment, like somebody stole some equipment, so I called up Ant [local producer] to come over and set it up. After he did, Unicus started coming over," New MC said.
Kanser recorded and released their 1995 cassette, "Now," and set out to support it with live shows.
"When we first got on, there weren't that many rappers in the Twin Cities. So when people came to our shows, it was like their first rap show ever," New MC said.
The two did a number of shows in Minnesota before branching out and touring in Wisconsin; Kanser planned and booked all their own shows.
"In the beginning, it was just Madison; we'd go and play Madison all the time," New MC said, laughing, talking about the early days on the road. Unicus remembers the whole Interlock crew sleeping in the van for the first few years.
While the duo never goes on extended tours lasting several months, they often play out of town on short one or two week stints.
"We ain't never been on nothing big where we go out on tour with somebody for like, three months. We be out for like a week, week and a half every month or so," New MC said.
"It feels like we're doing shows every weekend," Unicus said of their bustling schedule.
The duo has a "hush hush" policy of sorts about stories from the road, keeping the juicy ones under wraps. After a brief story involving narcotics, Unicus added simply: "Omaha cops don't play."
"To be honest, we can't even tell you a lot of stuff we get into, because it's that ridiculous," New MC added.
Their tours have evolved over the years from the early Madison days, becoming better planned throughout the years. The evolution wasn't one New MC and Unicus mapped out. Quite the opposite, it happened with the natural passage of time.
"We just got so caught up in it [the music], that we forgot to do other stuff. We got to be like 20-something and we were like 'aw fuck, we forgot to go to college,'" New MC said.
Kanser's financial standing while on the road isn't solely dependent on CD and shirt sales as their tours are fairly short. It'd be a different story if they were doing three-month tours.
"I believe God takes care of us, 'cause we always have enough money to get where we're going," New MC said. "I work like 12 hours a week at this sandwich shop. I gotta have a job, because if you don't have a job, you can't get a rental car. Last summer when we were doing so good, we weren't working. We tried to go rent a car to make some cheese and they wouldn't rent to us because we didn't have a job. We got there though."
As Kanser has further establishes itself, Unicus believes the reason for their success and longevity is their approach to the music.
"We've stayed relevant with what's going on. We're not trying to make magical stuff happen; we're just speaking our minds," he said.
The duo wonders if simply surviving is exciting enough and New MC is mixed about the press the group's received.
"Whenever anybody interviews us, we think there's really not that much to write about," New MC said. "It's kind of all straight up. We don't have no drama. We ain't sarcastic too much or anything. We're just kind of basic underground hip-hop."
www.interlock.cc
www.myspace.com/kanser |
