Listen: Guante ‘Dungeons’ Mixtape (Minimum Wage Show Saturday!)

Local MC Guante, a Reviler favorite, might be the James Brown of the local music scene. Not in that he kicks his musicians if they miss a note, but the “hardest working man in show bussiness” part. After last years outstanding You Better Weaponize LP with Big Cats!, you can’t turn a corner without hearing about a spoken-word performance, a lecture, or a hip hop show where he is laying down some hard truths via his conscious and engaging work. With all that is going on, two projects he is involved with have recently caught our attention.

The first is the Dungeons Mixtape that is streaming below, where he jacked beats from the Dungeon Family as a canvass for his searing commentary. It is part shit-talking mixtape, part social commentary, a 30 minute slab equal divided between insightful and entertaining in a way that Guante does better than just about any rapper, local or otherwise.

Guante also will be headlining the Rogue Citizen Minimum Wage Art show tonight at Gamut Gallery in Minneapolis, where artists are making 40 pieces of work that took 1 hour to create and selling them for the current state minimum wage (with proceeds going to Worker Centers). In a show of solidarity, Guante will perform for minimum wage plus tips to highlight the struggle of working for poverty wages and the need to raise our states minimum wage. A good guy making good music. Who would have thought?

Check out the mixtape below and head to Gamut Gallery tonight to see Guante along with other acts, including a DJ set by Ander Other from Doomtree, in what Guante has said is his only “rap show” scheduled in the Twin Cities for right now.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/136376283″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]