A Thank You To Stage One
photo of Stage One, by Ben Kressel
This is a Thank You to a Twin Cities Hip-Hop Icon, Stage One, who will be on hand to see a series of photos he curated throughout the past decade inducted into the Minnesota Historical Society on Friday September 9, 2022 at 1pm.
Sometimes when influential people get something wrong about you, but still remember you, it still warms your heart. Chali 2na from Jurassic5 thinks I’m the drummer in Heiruspecs, I’m actually the bassist. And Aesop Rock thinks my own name is Heiruspecs, it’s actually Sean. Here’s video of us (Tasha, Peter, Josh, moi) playing together 20 years ago! You can find us at 19:22.
And for a time the Twin Cities icon and Sure Shot Brother Stage One thought my name was Heiruspecs, and I had zero complaints cause he was always a hero to me.
About 2001 I was part of a backing band that supported a bi-weekly open mic at the Dinkytowner hosted by Truth Maze and Stage One holding it down as the DJ. I think it was put together by MNSWA and E.G. Bailey and Sha Cage in particular. Before I had ever met him, I knew that Stage was a very important part of the story of Twin Cities hip-hop. I knew that from Felix in Heiruspecs, from Slug in Atmosphere, from New MC in Kanser. It was known that Stage’s homes throughout the years had been the epicenter for some great freestyling sessions, that Stage was on the turntables at some of the best events in the Twin Cities and that he was well-respected for his time as a graffiti writer as well. I had seen him DJ a handful of times before we worked together and I knew he was elite. When I did get to share a bill with him I was in awe of his presence and all I really got to know was his presence. The turntables were strangely far away from the stage at the Dinkytowner. Stage was quiet and I was scared as shit to bother him. He was older than me, he was a legend. But his support and respect was inspiring to me. He would tastefully join in just a bit on the turntables when our band was playing, adding a bit, commenting through his scratches on what we were doing. When we would deliver a well-known groove he would give us that knowing look that he saw what we were doing and he approved. Weeks of the gig went by before he just said “hey Heiruspecs” to just me as I was walking up those Dinkytowner stairs probably to have a cigarette. This greeting let me know that Stage was aware enough of what Heiruspecs was doing in town to know what our name was. I was absolutely elated. I had zero interest in correcting him and mentioning that my name was Sean or god forbid trying to explain to a grown ass DJ that my stage name was Twinkie Jiggles. I was just excited that this OG that I held in high regard knew the name Heiruspecs. The weeks went by and the open mic got real good. Imagine the firepower you have when Truth Maze is hosting, Stage One is DJing. . .and the band was nice?? We had a lot of fun. Poets pushing us to new heights, us doing the same. Known poets who were big on the scene making sure they got to our event. And Stage was the glue, chiming in during set breaks with full sets of incredible music but also making himself part of the open mic element as well. It was a magical run and I can’t really remember why we stopped.
This is a long way of saying that I’ve known Stage for a long time and I’ve had respect for him for even longer than that. Stage, like so many talented artists from the Twin Cities shipped off for Atlanta for an extended period of time. I didn’t have much opportunity to connect with Stage during that time but after he moved back to Minnesota he kept me informed of what was happening for him and his musical compatriots. By this time he knew my name was Sean and I was elated that he was eager to share his knowledge with me. He was connected with artists from the Twin Cities that weren’t on my radar and through our discussions I was able to feature them on the Current, celebrate their music and document the Twin Cities music scene more completely. And sadly, sometimes when I interviewed Stage during my tenure at the Current it was to cover a death of an icon from the Twin Cities. We spoke when the legend Disco T died here. Stage knew it was his duty to share insight about people from his world who passed, but he did it with a heavy heart, I knew it took a lot out of him to share his stories with me, and I appreciated him doing it. On a happier note, we worked it out to get some of Stage’s mixes on the air in the summer of 2021 and it was one of my proudest moments to hear his mixes blaring in my car on an FM dial. It was an honor to have a closer connection with him. He was always quick to talk about the younger and the older artists he cared about in the scene, he always pushed the spotlight off of himself and onto US, onto the Twin Cities hip-hop scene. It was clear he felt a sense of duty to try to lay the history down correctly. The man wrote a book about his life growing up in the Twin Cities and his connection to the Twin Cities hip-hop scene. Documenting this scene is part of his mission.
And a big part of that mission to celebrate and document Minnesota hip-hop has been his series of “A Great Day in Minnesota Hip-Hop” photos. Since 2010 Stage has placed open calls to graffiti writers, DJs, B-boys and girls, MCs and more to come together for a photo to document the scene. I say document as opposed to celebrate because I know it isn’t always simply a celebration. There are parts of the Twin Cities hip-hop scene that don’t deserve a celebration; they deserve accountability, they deserve contrition. But, in my opinion, the scene deserves documentation, and through years of effort we are seeing these photos get the treatment they deserve. I got out to the photo shoot for the 2021 picture but my four year old was on a departure schedule that didn’t line up with me being there for the actual photo. But frankly, it was enough for me just to see old friends meeting up after years, some visiting non-family members for the first time since the start of the pandemic. It was a beautiful morning in Minneapolis and to see Stage organizing, conversing and navigating the laundry list of issues that come up during a significant undertaking like a large scale portrait left me glowing.
On Friday September 9 at 1pm a handful of these portraits are going to go into the collection at the Minnesota Historical Society. I imagine this is a big moment for Stage, but really it’s a big moment for so many people. It’s a moment for every hip-hop artist who thought that their work, their sacrifices and their visions might never be saved for posterity. There are so many efforts to tamp down on black expression and there might be even more to tamp down on letting those documents of black expression share space in the hallowed halls of institutions like the Minnesota Historical Society. For decades now Stage One has been placing his thumb and his entire body weight on the opposite side, using his voice and his knowledge to document black expression by celebrating hip-hop, by being a mouthpiece for parts of the scene that are too often brushed over or dismissed and for making sure everybody gets in the frame. Thank you Stage.