Powerful Minneapolis rapper/punk rocker P.O.S. has just released a stunning new hip-hop record called We Don’t Even Live Here on Rhymesayers, which you can stream here until Nov. 21.
ListenWe Don't Even Live Here by P.O.S.
Streaming until Nov. 21
Tracklist
Also known as Stefon Alexander, P.O.S. has led a prolific musical life, including stints fronting punk bands, co-founding the Doomtree hip-hop collective and making solo albums, including the politically and electro-charged We Don’t Even Live Here, which was released in October (and should appeal to fans of Cadence Weapon or Sage Francis). Just as he was about to embark on his first headlining tour, Alexander had to cancel the whole thing due to health issues.
“I’ve had bad kidneys since I was a teenager and they’ve finally caught up to me at a very inopportune time,” he says, over the phone from his home in Minneapolis. “I need a kidney transplant and I’ve got some donors so hopefully I’ll get to that pretty soon. It’s just a matter of going through and making sure they’re the best matches.”
Alexander says he’s undergoing peritoneal dialysis to ensure that his blood cleans itself properly, which is what healthy kidneys should be doing. It’s difficult to tell if he’s handling this super well or simply putting on a brave front.
“It’s been incredibly hard,” he admits. "At the same time, I’ve been knowing that something like this might happen since I’ve been a teenager, so I was kinda prepared for it. It’s just a really inopportune time.”
Since making an announcement about his health woes, Alexander says he’s had a lot of support from his musical community. In fact, his Doomtree cohorts launched a fundraising campaign, reaching their goal of $25,000 to help P.O.S. focus on his health instead of chasing after a job and haggling with insurance companies.
“It changed my whole thought pattern into staying alive instead of just making music,” he says, grateful for the gesture.
The galvanized support for P.O.S. makes plenty of sense when checking out the list of guest artists on We Don’t Even Live Here. Notably, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon checks in to lend vocals to “Where We Land,” joining a cast of Doomtree members and electro producers like Boyz Noise and hip-hop heavyweight Andrew Dawson (who’s worked with Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyoncé). They all came together to make the LP a banger.
“Almost every record I make, I work entirely from my community here,” Alexander explains. “I always reach out past my area but always end up working with people in my scene. I’m lucky in a sense that I’ve made friends with all different styles of musicians in this city. I don’t reach out to anybody if we don’t have a mutual respect.”
For all his punk rock pedigree, P.O.S. backed off the guitars to figure out how heavy he could get with synths and electronic music machines on We Don’t Even Live Here, whose title itself speaks to his pointed perspective.
“It’s lashing out at the economic system and how partisan the politics are and trying to escape that,” he says. “It’s like, ‘we don’t even live here, we’re not thinking about that stuff, we’re thinking about how to survive, be good to each other and how to have the best time even though it seems like a terrible place to be sometimes.’ It’s a state of mind. Like, we all live on the same planet but clearly I live on a different planet, know what I’m sayin’?”
With his tour cancelled and his career on the blocks, P.O.S. is keenly looking ahead to a day where he can bring his amazing new record to people in a live setting.
“There’s nothing else I can do aside from make things at home,” he says ruefully. “I’m planning for the next set of videos but mostly am just waiting to hear when I can get a date for my transplant so I can book shows again. If everything goes according to plan, I should be able to go back on the road three or four months afterwards. So hopefully that all gets sorted out soon so I can start booking up.”
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