The Musik Lounge

For a crew with the rep Sandpeople have amassed over the years on their grind it seems crazy to think they are giving music away for free. Shouldn’t they be on some major indy by now? Truth is told in this day and age you can probably do just as good on your own – if you are willing to put in the work. Apparently they have been going so hard that they have too much music and decided to give away three albums for free over the next three months. The first was given away on the first of this month (as the next two will be in the following two months) and is Sapient’s Make Morphine . Filled with a different producer for each track tackling an original from Sapient’s self produced Make More , it is a somewhat scattershot collection with a to be expected wide variety of styles. Some work well with Sapient’s own steez and some leave you craving the original. While not completely in a new order, some songs are in new places but “Here” is still the opener and I would say DJ FlipFlop did his t...

So I dropped off a little article meets review (of his new album I Am My Enemy which you need to peep if you haven't) on IAME Thursday night and now, as promised here is the full Q&A transcript. I hope you enjoyed the article and gain some insight into one of Portland's up and comers. Q: Can you introduce yourself and give a quick history lesson of the Sandpeople? A: My name is IAME. Basically as Sandpeople go, it was crew that started about 2004-2005. It was originally me, Moby and Simple we had a group called Red Shield and that was like the first project that I was ever involved in seriously outside of just messing around – the first album that I put out. Shortly after that period we started working with more artists within the region and decided to do a bigger crew effort and so we did this album. This album was the very beginning stages of the group, it wasn’t like we became this group and then made an album – the group was still getting defined when we made the firs...

Upon my arrival to PDX I almost instantly heard talk about the massive Sandpeople collective. I’d heard the name throughout my time in Seattle, but was never confronted with there music like I was once I relocated to their stomping grounds (thanks in large part to my room mate). While the crew as a whole can be heard on their impressive EP Long Story, Short from earlier this summer original member IAME dropped his sophomore full length in July and has steadily been on a mission since to spread the word about his music, his crew and our town. “Portland has this big Rock scene and stuff and it makes it interesting to do Hip Hop here because it’s not as embraced as well as the Rock music,” says IAME. While the music may not be what first comes to mind when one thinks about Oregon, the almost five year long journey he and his people have been on seems to be making head way as they continue to make moves across the country. “There isn’t a lot of industry so to make our music stand out an...