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Fic (center) and his homies pose-strike in Bloomington

In Buddy’s incarcerated absence, the indie-rap Rhymesayers crew swallowed the Minneapolis hip-hop scene whole. Its crossover group Atmosphere possessed an aesthetic more likely to land them on a teenage girl’s wall then rap radio. But good news, hip-hoppers -- former NBAer Troy Hudson isn’t our last hope. Local mixtape-circuit magnate Fiction (Fic for short) is actively pursuing Minneapolis hip-hop stardom.

Fic, born Ronald Jones Jr., isn’t scared to say he’s from Minneapolis. In fact, he sees his Minneapolis stomping grounds as an untapped stream of hip-hop waiting to happen. He’s not happy things are moving so slowly, however.

“If Missy Elliot is in L.A., there better be posters and flyers on every tree and light post -- otherwise someone is getting fired,” Fic said. “We want to get up and run and do the same thing (in Minneapolis).”

The 24-year-old Fic knows Minneapolis hip-hop fans are waiting for someone of whom they can be proud. Whether he’s able to transcend his local confines or not, Fic has the right idea. Rather than writing emo-rap rhymes devoid of any self-esteem, Fic attempts to come across as a giant, using self-aggrandizing tactics to communicate a king-of-the-city persona as in this grammatically incorrect line: “I rep Minnesota/even on my day off I eat, p*ss, sh** and slept Minnesota.”

But Fic’s rhymes aren’t all about metaphors and ideas that the common Minnesotan can’t touch. Minneapolis is known for its heart-on-sleeve rap, and Fic lets it be known that he represents Minnesota, something any casual local hip-hop fan can appreciate.

“Whoever listens to Rhymesayers should be able to hear us,” Fic said.

Some critics have come to believe that a group like Atmosphere has saturated its Minneapolis market.

“At some point everyone needs a change,” said D.V. Beecher, national booking director at Foundation Nightclub in Minneapolis.

Solid public relations are what will make or break many local artists attempting to usurp Rhymesayers dominance, Beecher said.

“Fic’s style needs to be marketed properly,” he said. “You need media to get your sound out or you’ll be selling tapes out of your trunk forever.”

Fic’s not about a message of wealth because he himself isn’t free of his trunk sales period yet.

“I write about real-life music,” Fic said. “I talk about what people are going through because I’m still going through it.”

Fic tackled Hurricane Katrina three days after it hit New Orleans in “Fallin’ Rain,” a song inspired by fears of his father’s whereabouts. But there is stuff in his catalog that would fall under what Fic calls “feel-good.”

“We got songs about riding through the city and going to the strip club,” Fic said. “Some music guys can smoke to and some music girls can dance to.”

Fic is working on national marketing. He and his StreetPrez crew have contacts around the country that push Fic’s songs. He’s done music with critically adored hip-hopper Freeway and Jay-Z protégé Memphis Bleek, among others. He’s also opened for and performed with Freeway in Minneapolis three times. For Fic, business, contacts and promotion are priorities.

As an example, Fic recently left his downtown domicile in order to move to a less dicey part of town.

“It was nothing but hustling and hypes,” Fic said. “Something would go down 20 minutes ago and you would walk up to your place and the police would grab you. I got thrown up against a building once for nothing.”

According to Foundation Nightclub entertainment director Zak Khutoretsky, Fic is a head above kids who hustle their way to local notoriety in mostly black Minneapolis neighborhoods.

Often individual kingpins of neighborhoods will step up their rap game and draw a few hundred people into Foundation for a show, but Khutoretsky said that method of promotion does not bode well for crossover appeal.

“I’ve watched street cats get 400 to 500 people to the club but they aren’t that good,” Khutoretsky said, “and if there is only one kind of person at the shows, if all kinds of people aren’t comfortable coming down to the club it’s not going to spread.”

Fic recently landed a job as a debt-collector, and he hopes the day job can help support a future national tour for his StreetPrez crew.

To shake things up, Khutoretsky thinks Fic has to become more original. He says the rapper has star power but he too often resorts to stale show-rocking tactics.

“I’ve seen too many shows where they’ll bring 35 people on stage while it’s just [one rapper] on the mic because it looks cool,” he said.