James Timothy "Tim" Holland Jr. (born September 25, 1977), better known by his

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Sole, is an American

underground hip hop Underground hip hop (also known as underground rap or simply underground) traditionally refers to hip hop music that is outside the general mainstream canon or counter-cultural in nature, usually with a heavy emphasis on emotion, lyricism, and/or ...

artist from

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. He is one of eight co-founders of the record label

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) was an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It was collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and manag ...

. He has been a member of the groups Northern Exposure, Live Poets,

Deep Puddle Dynamics Deep Puddle Dynamics was a collaborative group featuring underground hip hop artists Sole, Doseone, Alias and Slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. T ...

, So-Called Artists, Da Babylonianz, Sole and the Skyrider Band and Waco Boyz.

Career

Sole recorded his first demo in 1992. At age 15, he assembled 45 Below Records, which included rappers Alias, JD Walker, and producer DJ Moodswing9 (then known as Cuz the Highlander). Sole and Moodswing9 released the album ''Mad Skillz and Unpaid Billz'' together as Northern Exposure, selling more than 300 copies. They also released 2 12" singles in 1995 and 1997 respectively and album in 1996 named ''What It All About'' under the name Live Poets. The releases garnered college radio play and sold a few thousand copies. In early 1998, Sole and rapper

Pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

coined the name

and together started a collectively owned record label under the name. Later it was set up as a standard corporation with eight shareholders. In the same year, Sole traveled to

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

with Alias and

Doseone Adam Kidd Drucker (born April 21, 1977), better known by his stage name Doseone, is an American rapper, producer, poet and artist. He is a co-founder of the indie hip hop record label Anticon. He has also been a member of numerous groups in ...

. They recorded the album '' The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel?'' as

with

Slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...

Atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

. Sole and Pedestrian moved Anticon to

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. In 2000, Sole released the first official solo album ''

Bottle of Humans A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal st ...

'' on Anticon. As So-Called Artists, he released '' Paint by Number Songs'' with Alias and DJ Mayonnaise in 2001. Sole's second solo album '' Selling Live Water'' was released in 2003 and received positive reviews;

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

gave it a 7.3,

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it a score of 77 out of 100. Later that year, he moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Two years later, he released the third solo album '' Live from Rome'' in 2005. Soon after, he moved back to the United States, relocating to

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ), known locally as Flag, is the county seat of Coconino County, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 76,831. Flagstaff is the principal city of the Coconino Cou ...

. In 2007, Sole released '' Sole and the Skyrider Band'' as Sole and the Skyrider Band. Its second album '' Plastique'' was released in 2009. In 2010, Sole left Anticon, citing a desire to further experiment with his music, independently of the collective, and also due to his belief that the label developed away from what he initially intended it to be. Sole and the Skyrider Band then released its third album. '' Hello Cruel World'' was released in 2011 to generally positive reviews. Aside from his official releases on Anticon, Sole has also released self-produced albums on his own imprint Black Canyon. These include various compilations of unreleased material, as well as the releases of his Man's Best Friend project, various mixtapes, and collaborations with platinum certified producer

DJ Pain 1 Pacal Alejandro Bayley (born October 21, 1983), better known by his stage name DJ Pain 1, is an American record producer and DJ from Madison, Wisconsin. He has produced for artists including Young Jeezy, 50 Cent, Schoolboy Q, Ludacris, Lil Baby, ...

. As he is no longer with Anticon, Sole currently self-releases his solo records.

Personal life

Sole is based in

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a New England town, town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. Brunswick is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part o ...

. He married Yasamin Al-Hussaini on January 1, 2004, and her name is referenced occasionally in his lyrics. While living in Denver, Sole was active in the local outpost of the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...

political movement, various anarchist projects and hosts a podcast about revolutionary politics and radical philosophy called "The Solecast."

Selected discography

Sole * ''

'' (

, 2000) * ''uck rt'' (2001) * '' Selling Live Water'' (Anticon, 2003) * '' Mansbestfriend Pt. 2: No Thanks'' (2003) * '' Live from Rome'' (Anticon, 2005) * ''Mansbestfriend Pt. 3: Myownworstenemy'' (2005) * '' Poly.Sci.187'' (Anticon, 2007) * ''Desert Eagle'' (2008) * '' A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing'' (Black Canyon, 2012) * '' No Wising Up No Settling Down'' (Black Canyon, 2013) * ''Crimes Against Totality'' (Black Canyon, 2013) * ''Mansbestfriend 7'' (Black Box Tapes, 2015) * ''Let Them Eat Sand'' (Black Box Tapes, 2018) * ''Destituent'' (Black Box Tapes, 2019) * ''MBFX'' (Black Box Tapes, 2021) Sole & DJ Pain 1 * ''

Death Drive In classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, the death drive () is the Drive theory, drive toward destruction in the sense of breaking down complex phenomena into their constituent parts or bringing life back to its inanimate 'dead' state, often ...

'' (Black Canyon, 2014) * ''Nihilismo'' (Black Box Tapes, 2016) * ''No God nor Country'' (Black Box Tapes, 2019) * ''Post American Studies'' (eMERGENCY hEARTS, 2022) Sole and the Skyrider Band * '' Sole and the Skyrider Band'' (Anticon, 2007) * '' Plastique'' ( Fake Four Inc., 2009) * '' Hello Cruel World'' (Fake Four Inc., 2011) Whitenoise (Sole with Yasamin Holland) * ''No More Dystopias'' (Black Canyon, 2013) * ''Ruins'' (Black Box Tapes, 2015) Other collaborations * ''What's It All About'' (45 Below, 1996) (with Moodswing9, as Live Poets) * '' The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel?'' (Anticon, 1999) (with Alias,

, as

) * ''Red Dawn: A Baybridge Epic'' (2001) (with

, as Da Babylonianz) * ''Paint by Number Songs'' ( Mush, 2001) (with Alias & DJ Mayonnaise, as So-Called Artists)

References

External links

Official website

Sole
on

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sole 1977 births Anticon American atheists American rappers East Coast hip-hop musicians Libertarian socialists Living people Rappers from Maine Underground rappers 21st-century American rappers Morr Music artists American anarchists Musicians from Portland, Maine 21st-century anarchists