S.A.S. (rap duo)

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This article concerns the rap group S.A.S. For the heavy metal band from Australia, please see SAS.

S.A.S.

Origin	U.K.
Years active	1997–Present
Genres	Rap
Labels	Diplomat Records
Members	Mega Mayhem

S.A.S. (formerly Strictly About Stacking changed in 2006 to Streets All Salute) is a rap duo consisting of brothers Mega And Mayhem.

Born to Nigerian parents, S.A.S. came to the United States in 1998 when Mayhem (the older of the two) received a basketball scholarship. Like many unsigned artists in school, they faced the dilemma of balancing out academics with their aspiring dreams to be in the hip hop game. They made good grades, but just had a stronger passion for rhyming. As far as their music went: "Our mother didn't totally support us at first," Mega said, "but once she heard our songs on the radio, she supported us more."

Considering themselves true hip-hop fans, S.A.S. have been influenced by artists ranging from the Rock Steady Crew to Slick Rick. Their favorite period in hip-hop was the Biggie "Ready to Die" era. They also said they were fascinated by the mainstream US battles, like the Dr. Dre/Eazy-E beef. Missing the hip-hop days of old, S.A.S. hopes to bring that sound back, saying the game is now "basically generic and unoriginal."

They've been rhyming for 7 years and formed a crew in the U.K. called "The Eurogang," who they still associate themselves with. They proudly shout out their crew in their song Still Free: "This is S.A.S., Dipset, Eurogang!" The Eurogang producer Rephan still makes beats for them, and all of the Eurogang are featured in a scene in the film State Property 2.^{[citation needed]}

Based out of Staten Island, Mega and Mayhem spent their time writing rhymes and battling other rappers. Their burgeoning reputations as vicious battle rappers soon found them facing off against the best from all over, from Sugar Hill in Harlem, to Times Square to Brooklyn's infamous Marcy Projects and the ears of some of it’s most infamous denizens. "Mega and Mayhem were the only unsigned artists to ever come into Marcy projects and completely shut it down," praises Memphis Bleek. "They just nice like that." Bleek wasn't the only one listening.

[edit] Ties To Diplomat Records

The road to getting signed was not an easy one. In a nutshell, they met Kanye West in 2002, which led to him introducing them to Juelz Santana in 2003, eventually leading to a phone conversation with Damon Dash, signing them to Diplomat Records/Roc-A-Fella.

Back in the UK, tastemakers like Radio One's Tim Westwood had started showing them love, and freestyles began popping up on New York stations like Hot 97. By early 2003, Kanye West was interested in a production deal and the duo were recording tracks with Diplomats such as Cam'ron, Jim Jones, and Juelz Santana. Later that summer, things came full circle – a ten-minute trans-Atlantic conference call with Jim Jones and Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash made it official: SAS were now signed to Dipset/Roc-A-Fella. Cam'ron has taken his Diplomats Record label international with the launching of Diplomat Records Europe and signing Eurogang creators S.A.S. They appeared on the Diplomats Records album "Diplomatic Immunity 2".

The group was affiliated with Damon Dash, leading to them being featured in a worldwide Roc-A-Wear ad campaign, but it took longer to be formally signed. "We approached the Diplomats on the street level and we had mutual friends in Harlem," Mayhem recounted. "We vibed on a character level, but when they realized we were talented they asked us to record songs with them in a hotel. Next thing you know we were on Top of the Pops with them when they performed 'Hey Ma' and the rest was history." "We’re excited," Mega stated. "We’ve always known we were this nice, it's just that now we have a team behind us with Diplomats that people respect."

Their debut album "Streets All Salute" was released On October 30th, 2005 in the UK. They have plans to bring the album to the United States, Canada and Japan in 2006.