A chilly wind blew across the deck of the restaurant, a vanguard of autumn’s arrival. Dustin Byerly sat upright in his chair across the table and zipped up his jacket. His dreadlocks were bound up beneath a cap, making him seem distinctly different from MC Sed One, Byerly’s onstage nom de guerre with the Montpelier-based hip-hop group he cofounded, Boomslang.

“It’s funny,” he said, looking out across Burlington’s South End. “Until Johnny got sick, I [had] never made another song with another producer in my life. It was basically a monogamous musical relationship.”

The Johnny in question was producer and beat-maker extraordinaire Johnny Morris, aka JL, the other half of Boomslang. The two connected in 2004, and Byerly recalled that it didn’t take long to discover their unique understanding of each another’s talents. Morris had a treasure trove of beats, but no rappers. Byerly, who initially came out of the Goddard College poetry scene before gravitating toward hip-hop, was ready to rap.