P.O.S.

A self-taught bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, and drummer, P.O.S. (which stands for a variety of things, including Product of Society, Piece of Sh*t, and Promise of Skill) spent most of his childhood influenced by the energy of punk, drumming for Cadillac Blindside and singing and playing guitar for Building Better Bombs. At 14, however, he was introduced to hip-hop via Company Flow and Oddjobs, and began rapping for fun, performing at small venues around Minneapolis. In 2004 P.O.S. put out his first solo album, Ipecac Neat, with the label/collective (that he co-formed) Doomtree, whose studio was in the basement of the house that many of the members shared. Rhymesayers was so impressed with it that they immediately signed the rapper and re-released the record, as well as the successive P.O.S. releases Audition (2006) and the sprawling Never Better (2009).