Tigard-raised rapper IAME explores place in hip hop
Ryan McMahon’s latest album, ‘I Am My Enemy,’ was released July 23
Jonathan House / The Times
RAPPER — IAME — Ryan McMahon — grew up in Tigard and now produces hip-hop in Portland.
Ryan McMahon, known in hip-hop circles as IAME, does not try to hide the fact that he comes from the suburbs. He grew up along the interstate between Tigard and Lake Oswego and attended Lake Oswego High until midway through his senior year.
In his latest album, “I Am My Enemy,” released July 23, McMahon tries to come to terms with what his suburban upbringing means to his place in the rap world.
One thing’s for sure, he said, being from the ’burbs means he’s had to work a lot harder than most to break into the rap scene.
“Being a white kid from the suburbs, I wasn’t going to walk into a room of rappers and get respect,” he said from the couch of his Northeast Portland apartment. “I had to really challenge myself with the idea of belonging in this genre and culture. It made me have to be really serious about it to do it.”
McMahon is serious. Aside from working 30 hours a week at a liquor store (which he’s not proud of — “it’s selling poisons to people,” he said), McMahon spends most of his time composing lyrics and practicing his recording and producing skills at Momentum Studios or his home.
A 25-year-old with blondish hair and a goatee, McMahon speaks steadily and thoughtfully, staring down into his drink as he talks. Like his lyrics, his responses to questions show a keen awareness of both himself as a person and the world outside his immediate existence.
Rather than talking about money, drugs and hos in his songs like many other rappers, McMahon sticks more with themes like life and death, spirituality, politics, his own faults, the music industry and the state of the world.
“In a lot of ways, I pride myself on being different,” he said. “At this point, I’m not willing to compromise myself and the things I say in my music to get the success a lot of people dream of. I want to make really good music, I want to have a positive impact on the world around me.”
McMahon started scrawling down verses at the age of 13. An introvert, he first worked up the nerve to freestyle rap at a party when he was 17. Soon after, he began competing in freestyle rap battles at Portland Community College.
At 19, McMahon performed with the now-defunct group Redshield before joining the still-thriving group Sandpeople. He’s also become very involved with the Northwest fixture Oldominion.
Local rapper and producer Marcus Williams, a.k.a. Sapient, has worked with McMahon for six years in the group Sandpeople. He said McMahon “has always been super dope at writing,” and when collaborating with other rappers, “he’s always the first dude to get his verse done, and he always has great input and ideas.”
Williams said he admires the clever rhymes and meanings hidden in McMahon’s verses.
“The way he builds rhyme schemes and slants words is crazy to me,” Williams said. “Sometimes, it takes me a minute to catch a clever pun or realize hidden rhyme schemes that he brings to the table of hip hop. I’m a firm believer in, ‘If you aren’t in awe of the way IAME raps, then you probably aren’t too quick in the head.’”
Williams sees the “I Am My Enemy” record as McMahon’s debut as a solo artist.
“His only other solo album ‘Noise Complaints’ was great, but he is a lot more mature as an artist, and he has been for a while,” Williams said.
McMahon said he tried to make his latest “a really honest album,” one that explores the complexities of both his chosen name, IAME, and the album’s title, “I Am My Enemy.”
On the one hand, “I am me,” an original and unapologetic hip-hop artist, McMahon said. On the other hand, he said, “I am my enemy,” with faults, questions and doubts.
“I’m not trying to say I am my only enemy or I am my worst enemy,” he said. “I’m trying to say I am sometimes my enemy.”
In light of his suburban upbringing, McMahon holds that it’s up to each individual listener to decide whether he belongs in the hip hop world.
He, for one, has his mind made up: “I know how I feel,” he said. “I’m not trying to hide anything. I know who I am.”
From the album
In the song “Unlikely Candidate,” McMahon struggles to come to terms with his place in hip-hop culture:
“I was raised in the suburbs / Since 13, I’ve studied rhymin’ / Since 18, I’ve been in the heart of the city steady grindin’ / Now it shouldn’t really matter what race or gender I am / In the hood, I am not the same white man who’s gentrifyin’ / Why? Because I’d love to clean and brighten up the block / But that don’t mean we gotta whiten up the block.”
Listen to the music
To hear “I Am My Enemy”:
“Every album I do will be different from the last one,” he said.