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Midwest Marauders: Steddy P and Prof

Written by Luke Muyskens. Published: Wednesday, March 9, 2011.

It’s Thursday, March 3 at 7:34 PM in Northfield, MN and someone just cracked open a beer. While you’re likely sitting on the couch, cozying up with a bag of Ruffles for the next couple of hours, anxiously awaiting the newest episode of “Jersey Shore”, Prof and Steddy P are probably pounding cans of PBR (or Rolling Rock?) getting ready to go on stage. The difference between them and you? Well, they’re rock stars — sort of — more like indie rap rock stars. The kind of guys that make every night — and especially every live performance — into a party. The two enigmatic Midwest MCs are joining forces this month to string together a slew of these parties, and chances are that they’re coming to an area near you.

Prof hails from the South Side of Minneapolis, and is currently signed to small local label, Stophouse Music Group, with St. Paul Slim. With a big voice and unwavering swagger (not the be confused with the entirely-made-up term, “swag”), he manipulates words playfully and skillfully to weave together track after track of banging excellence. Prof has mixed it up with the best of the Twin Cities, and is continuing to build as a musician. With a reputation as a wild party-boy, Prof has a vault full of braggadocios party anthems, but is not afraid to switch gears every once and a while to show his serious side. His notorious live shows are a must-see; Prof and DJ Fundo get as buck-wild as they come.

Steddy P hails from Kansas City, Missouri, and is the founder and CEO of KC label, Indyground Entertainment. As industrious as any of your favorite rappers, Steddy built Indyground from the ground up at a grassroots level, and has made more progress for the KC rap scene than anyone since Tech N9ne. Touring tirelessly with DJ Mahf, he has opened for artists from KRS-ONE to Brother Ali. With an honest and varying subject matter and crisp and sincere delivery, Steddy never fails to eloquently and straightforwardly tell you what’s on his mind. Constantly developing and growing as an artist, Steddy P is not confined to any one style, and will continue to impress and to grind nonstop in order to bring the music he loves to a region that needs it.

This March marks the beginning of the Lookout Tour, a joint tour between Minneapolis rapper Prof and Kansas City rapper Steddy P, starting in Minnesota at the beginning of the month and winding its way down the Midwest to finish at the famed SXSW in Austin, TX. Although they have not worked together closely in the past, these two rappers have a lot in common, from energetic live shows to untiring work ethic. Both have been grinding particularly hard as of late, and have made a name for their small local labels through word-of-mouth hustling and a steady flow of often-free, high-quality music and dynamite live performances. We spoke with both of them to figure out where they’re coming from and where they’re headed with this tour and their current projects. Read up to see what’s next from Steddy and Prof.

aboveGround Magazine: Can you just start off by introducing yourselves for anyone who might not be up?

Prof: Hi. I’m Prof. I’m a rapper. Stophouse is the label.

Steddy P: Word, my name is Steddy P, by the way of Kansas City, Missouri, Indyground Entertainment. We’re based around the Show-Me State, we started in 2004, we’ve been a registered business since 2007, and we have 24 releases to date plus ten free releases

AG: Prof, you released an EP this past March called Kaiser Von Powderhorn 2, how is this EP new and different?

Prof: I don’t know. I don’t know if anything is really truly new or different these days. I just think it’s good. I rap and sing. I would say KVP2 is like a hard version of B.O.B.

AG: Steddy, you released an EP this last November called No Days Off, how is this EP new and different?

Steddy P: A lot of people jump into the mixtape world; they’re always putting out tapes, rapping on other people’s beats. I’m not huge on that, but I’m still an MC, I still rap, I still enjoy it a lot, so when I did the No Days Off shit I took a mixtape approach to it, but I wanted to go above and beyond and try to take some of these beats and totally make them mine, one-up the original. I took a different approach to it, just trying to open up the appeal a little bit, different from the things I’ve done before, trying to highlight against my rapping skills as opposed to just writing songs.

AG: You both tend to release a lot of EPs and music for free online, are these things you believe are important in today’s music industry?

Steddy P: Absolutely. Record sales have always been down, a lot of people like to argue that it’s because everything’s free, and I totally disagree. It’s just necessary; it’s where the evolution of music has gone. Where as you know twenty thirty years ago you gave the press a vinyl, a 12-inch, and you’d play it in the clubs, today you gotta put a few projects for people to download it.

Prof: I don’t remember the last CD I bought. I know a bunch of DJs, and they just give me everything for free. I’m sure it’s like that everywhere. Kids just sharing music. There is a zero percent chance I would buy a record off a rapper I don’t know. That doesn’t bode well for anybody who is trying to grow, does it? I’m sure I could have sold my last couple projects and caked up off them somn decent, but I want to grow more than that, reach more people.

AG: Prof, how did Stophouse come to be?

Prof: Stophouse Music Group is a spinoff of an older MPLS record label called INTERLOCK. Some heads got together, and bang.

AG: Steddy, how did Indyground come to be?

Steddy P: Out of necessity. In Missouri, we have tons and tons of great talent, but unfortunately the hip hop market really doesn’t live down here. Indyground, we busted our ass trying to fill in those voids all the way from Lawrence all the way to St. Louis. We’ve attacked these markets more consistently than anyone in this region, hip hop or not. Really we’re just trying to bring some of that flavor back to the Show-Me State. When I was growing up, Rhymesayers came through here and approached Joe Good, Mac Lethal, the 2000’s era around here is really what I looked up to. And they were touring a lot; they were even doing shows in our region. A lot of that stopped, and Indyground really was designed to bring that back. It was also made out of necessity, we couldn’t get beats, I didn’t have any designers, so we built from the ground up, we started a grassroots effort, and here we are today.

AG: Are there any plans for expansion for Stophouse or Indyground?

Prof: Yes. Do you make great beats? Are you a good rapper? Do you have crowds coming to your shows? info@stophousegroup.com

Steddy P: If we have a great year, which we’re planning too. I already have fifty dates on the docket. We have been hoping to open another office in Chicago. We have an office in Kansas City, we record a lot of our music in St. Louis, so we figured it really only made sense to set up another hub in Chicago, that way we can hit the Chi, St. Louis, KC thing. It’s not any competition thing, it’s just the fact that I feel in the last five years that a lot of the hip hop has moved north, a lot of it has moved to Minneapolis and Minnesota. Minnesota has just got it right now, and I look up to that, I respect that, I know a lot of the artists over there at Rhymesayers, I toured with a lot of these artists. But a lot of people look up to these giants, and for whatever reason they go the other way. Doomtree took the approach that they did it, we can too. That’s the same approach that we’re taking, we’re just down here in Missouri and I think there’s a really big movement going on here in the last two years, Indyground has really been influencing a lot of the scenes around here, St. Louis, Kansas City, Lawrence, Columbia. You really start to see it come out, maybe not in another artist but in their content, their output. So yeah, it’s definitely working and it feels good, and I don’t get mad when I see somebody bite out shit, I feel like man we’re doing our job cause people are looking towards us for an example, much like people in Minnesota look towards Rhymesayers for an example.

AG: What is different about the TC rap scene?

Prof: There isn’t an underground rap scene in the country doing it like [Minneapolis]. Hands down. There might not be a city in the world that is currently supporting the volume of independent hip hop like [Minneapolis] is. Rhymesayers, Doomtree, Stophouse, countless other labels and artists are eating up here. Come see for yourself.

AG: What’s different about the KC rap scene?

Steddy P: In St. Louis there are tons and tons of great DJs, great producers, great studios. We’re talking about lyricists, that’s KC all day down here. I don’t mean to disrespect any of my family in St. Louis, but I mean you do your homework, from Tech N9ne, to Mac Lethal, to Approach, Joe Good, SoundsGood, Stik Figa, Greg Enemy, there’s a lot of good lyricists. We all push each other, and a lot of us don’t get a lot of exposure, a lot of the people here don’t get out a lot. Somebody will come out with a dope album here, and it’ll be a big deal, but please believe that there’s like seven other emcee’s that put out great albums every year. I feel like Kansas City, out of every other city in the Midwest, has the potential to catch Minneapolis at the hip hop scene. We have to come together as a city, and work together. A lot of times that’s a lot easier said than done.

AG: You’ve both worked with an impressive list of artists, who has been your favorite to work with?

Prof: It’s a toss-up between Slug (of Atmosphere) and POS (of Doomtree). It’s always fun talking with Slug about music. We are both so damn particular about shit, and I feel we have a similar critical process it seems. POS was dope because we spent some good time in the same small studio, and everything flowed well. Some organic shit. We both sounded good on that track.

Steddy P: I guess off the top, I’ve gotta say first Tech, just because of the hugeness of this guy. He is the number one independent rapper in the world, statistically, sales-wise, money-wise, tour-wise, and it’s just so inspiring. I have a lot of fun opening for the Doomtree crew too. POS is the man, their whole crew is so nice, they love me, they give me compliments, I like a lot of them. I always try to open up for people that I’m a fan of because it just means that much to me, and it’s really cool that most of these people are actually as cool as their music is. Another cool one I’d say was Talib Kweli, cause that was such a big stage, there [were] like 900 people there in Lawrence. That was one of those shows like we’re here, we’re not going anywhere, we got some shit.

AG: What do you do outside of making rap music?

Steddy P: We got a side company, called Pandorium Media Group, and we do video, we do websites, we do a lot of side-hustle shit that just helps us in our own right, but we do have an office for the label and I do work in the office five days a week, nine to five if I’m not touring. But music and the label, it’s been my life.

Prof: I bowl on Wednesday nights sometimes.

AG: Who are some of your musical inspirations and who do you think is making good music now?

Steddy P: Growing up my dad had a lot of jazz; I had an extensive record collection. I have a lot of influences, maybe one of the biggest ones is my soul/ jazz roots, like Roger and Zapp, Frankie Beverly and Maze, a lot of that old music just really inspires me. Then when I was younger and I got into hip hop, early on I liked everything. From Snoop to Dre to Biggie, but then I also like all of the Rawkus shit, I’m a huge Pharoahe Monch fan, that 2000 era is what really got me hit. Then I went to school, and I never knew anything about like Rhymesayers or Def Jux or nothing until I was like 21, and one of my homies at school hooked me on Aesop Rock and Atmosphere, and I was just so shocked that there was this underground that was garnering a fanbase, making money, touring, and they weren’t compromising their music at all. I had seen Tech N9ne, I’m from Kansas City. Once I started seeing people from other Midwest cities and they’re doing well, you know like Atmosphere, Blueprint, this shit fucked me up. Midwest kids, you know what I’m sayin? I had no idea, and it was real dope.

Prof: The 1st rap album I memorized is [Goodie Mobb's] Soul Food. That was the shit. Cee-Lo is a big inspiration of mine. Still is. Right now there aren’t too many rappers that I think are doing it well. Jay z is still good, Lil’ Wayne and ‘em still can get a good verse in… I don’t know, I hate a lot more than I like. A lot of the excitement is gone for me- especially on the radio. (Don’t get me wrong, I think the underground is even worse) but I haven’t been blown back by anything in a while. Remember when Eminem [first] came out? People were going crazy. Remember Nas vs Jay? Maybe I’m just getting old and more critical. But shit sucks.

AG: You’re about to embark of The Lookout Tour together, what cities are you gonna hit up and who are some of the other performances by?

Steddy P: We’re hittin up Northfield, MN, Minneapolis, MN, Sioux Falls, SD, then down here we’re gonna get KC, St. Louis, Lawrence, Columbia, Springfield. We’re hittin some college markets, we’re hittin some bg city markets. The Crest is also gonna be playing with us, I played with them back in 07. Kanser are very good friends of mine, Unicus and Zach, and they introduced me to The Crest, they have a huge history with them. Down in Kansas City, we got Ces Cru playing in KC and Lawrence, they’re being courted very very hard right now by Strange Music. Strange might end up signing them, Tech put em on his latest record. Ces is on While You Were Sleeping with me, I’ve known the Ces Cru for many years, they’re a great act. You’ll see Farout in Dallas from Indyground, Mathias, they’ll all be in our region.

Prof: Peep all the details at stophousegroup.com

AG: Are there any collaborations planned between you two?

Steddy P: We collabed back in ’08 on a record I did called Dear Columbia, called “When Your Mouth is Moving”, and it was me, Prof and Zach. Actually if you go to the Indyground homepage, the song is posted on a Bandcamp player under the tour announcement. That really broke Prof to our fanbase down in Missouri back in ’08. Me and Prof are pretty good friends, we’ve always kept in touch, I respect what they do and they respect what we do, and its cool, I’m glad that we still have kept in touch after a couple of years.

Prof: We just finished a lil’ remix you’ll probably see/hear on tour.

AG: What projects do you have in the works right now?

Steddy P: Workin on the new album, it’s called What Happened Tomorrow, a lot of promo going out for that right now. That’ll be me and DJ Mahf, in our home markets we’re pairing with bands, making it kind of like a mash up. We used to play with bands a lot, and we love bands a lot, so we try to make sure we keep it involved with what we got goin on. The record comes out March 15, tour in April and May, big big Midwest tour, we already have 25 confirmed dates for that tour. I’m really excited about it; it’s my best record to date. We did a lot of EPs and mixtapes and stuff like that last year for free, and now we wanna show everyone we can do the albums, and we’ll give you that for free too. After this one we’re gonna do a sample-free record, which I’m really excited about.

Prof: Been 4 years since my last solo full length, but got a new album out late spring/early summer. SOON.

AG: Any last thoughts or shout-outs

Steddy P: Shout out to the homie Tyler from aboveGround, and shout out to the Midwest hip hop scene, as small as we are, we’re still big. I see it; I know y’all see it too.

Prof: I’m having a Viagra/sweatpants party at the crib this weekend. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY.

The Lookout Tour:
Northfield, MN: Thurs. March 3 @ The Key
Minneapolis, MN: Fri. March 4 @ Fine Line Music Café
Sioux Falls, SD: Sat. March 5 @ Skelly’s
Kansas City, MO: Wed. March 9 @ Riot Room
St. Louis, MO: Thurs. March 10 @ Firebird
Lawrence, KS: Fri. March 11 @ Jackpot Music Hall
Columbia, MO: Sun. March 12 @ Mojos
Springfield, MO: Sun. March 13 @ Lemondrop
SXSW Austin, TX: Wed. March 16-March 20

Prof Free Downloads: http://www.stophousegroup.com/releases/
twitter.com/profstophouse
facebook.com/ProfGampo

Steddy P Free Downloads: http://steddyp.com/Music.html

http://twitter.com/STEDDYP

http://www.facebook.com/#!/steddyp

Category: Music