Most hip-hop fans around the country know there's something strangely special about the Twin Cities scene. They can flash their indie cred like a fanned out fistful of Franklins just by rattling off a few of the most recognizable names -- Atmosphere and Eyedea & Abilities come to mind. But there's another duo that has quietly helped define their city's place in hip-hop culture since the turn of the millennium: The Unknown Prophets.

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Just barely out of high school in 2000, MaD SoN and Big Jess debuted with memorable single "Never" featuring a friend who'd become one of the genre's most recognizable Rhymesayers. The collaboration with Slug was a down-to-earth opus that not only cemented the UPs melodic rap style, it laid their cards on the table: Even though the Prophets might never get signed / Never drop a video or go platinum with our rhymes / It'll be cool just knowin' that we've touched a few / and rocked the mic with some of the dopest emcees too. Little did they know that just three years later they'd release their scrappy World Premier debut featuring a trio of the genre's break-out stars -- Brother Ali, Slug and DJ Abilities -- all artists who continue to support the pair's music career (Slug demanding in a 2008 interview with City Pages that the writer's next Q&A be with the UPs). This deserved recognition took time to build, milestones including Now You Know in 2002 and highly praised The Road Less Traveled in 2006, but it all began in a Northeast Minneapolis classroom. At the time, Jess had been submitting his songs to local radio station KMOJ's "Rush It or Flush It" but got flushed every time until the project morphed into a duo. The chemistry between them was confirmed when the next two songs they submitted were instantly "rushed," and thus the Unknown Prophets were born, adding award-winning DJ Willy Lose to the mix shortly after.