The Musik Lounge

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...