An Open Letter from the Son of SAMO
Son of SAMO drops tomorrow 1/19/12 via DJBooth.net & TheESSOexperience.com
TDK Interview x Freestyle: Esso
NY rapper Esso sits down with us to talk about the creation process for his next project, as well as what artists he’s currently listening to. He also dropped an exclusive freestyle, which you can view below.
ESSO x DopeFiles.com [Interview & Freestyle]
Big shouts to Latasha and Dopefiles.com for coming by the studio and chopping it up for a while. I’m not gonna lie, that whole “Off The Record” segment was actually supposed to be off the record, but fuck it…it’s my opinion, and you dont have to agree. The Freestyle is a freestyle in the purest definition of the word, meaning it’s whatever came to mind at that particular moment over the beat. #yandilife
ESSO x “Chicken & Waffles” Radio (DePaul University)
(Yes, I’ve been waitin to get back to Roscoe’s forfuckingever at this point…lol)
Big shouts to my dude Zeke The Freak for chopping up the interview and sending it over. Last night I called into Chicken and Waffles on Radio DePaul in Chicago with host P welbs (@pwelbs) and Q (@Qisfreshnproper). I said it on aire a couple of times last night, but Chicken & Waffles Radio has to be one of the best College Radio Show names in the history of College Radio.
Part 1: Who is ESSO? What is an Anti-Socialite? What is the meaning behind New York, New York?
Via HiZeke.com
The Lifestyle Connoisseur x ESSO [Interview]
Big shouts to Pete Verry and The Lifestyle Connoisseur
#TheAnti-Socialite’s Thank You’s
One of the things that I just realized is that in the digital age where artwork is only 2 panels and most people never really see anything other than the front cover in iTunes, the are of the Thank You has been completely neglected. I wanted to take a few seconds here to thank the people that helped to make this project happen.
The Y&I Family:
What can I say? I’m sure there were times that you’ve hated me throughout this (especially in the past week or so) but y’all are the catalyst to everything I do. Saint Paul (who I never call Saint Paul) you’ve seen this shit from the absolute beginning…long way from the Platinum Lounge eh? Tory & Anabelle, I know I’ve prolly stressed y’all the most and vice versa, but isn’t that our jobs? Renny, Woody & NvMe, this project is as much each of yours as it is mine. Thank’s for stretching the canvases for me to paint on. Chase, 3 words: Budweiser 24 Pack.
To the person that I told that I wanted to write the new project in her apartment, thank you for not looking at me like I was crazy when I said that, despite however crazy even I acknowledge that must have sounded. And thanks for admiring my Usain Bolt (run on) sentences.
To everybody that’s kept me sane since June 25th, 2009 from the bottom of my heart, Thank You.
To Shake, let this serve as a public apology for the way that the cover situation was handled. You’ve had my back since none of your audience even really knew who I was. We’re supposed to let the commenters on 2DBz hate me, they don’t need any help haha!
To everyone that I let hear The Anti-Socialite before today: I’m glad your reactions were what they were when you heard it because I dont know what I would have done with myself if they weren’t what they were.
To the person whose words led to the title (ironically you were the first person to hear the idea), I told you I was gonna turn this shit into something epic!
To Imagination, Creativity, Faith, Critical Thinking and Intelligence: Thanks for never leaving me to defend myself alone.
#ESSxSW
(started writing this after leaving 6th st. on Saturday)
First of all its 5:22am and I’m not really tired so I’m gonna attempt it. Don’t judge me for grammar on this one. Thanks in advance…LOL
Thank You’s (trying to do this from memory so forgive me)
First and foremost to the Y&I Team (Tory and Anabelle) and Martin y’all definitely held me down and I appreciate it more than you know. Besides the still as yet unfound Digital Camera everything ran pretty much as smoothly as could be expected. What a difference a year makes huh?
To IB, Chris, Jeanette, The Bamaz & the Houston side of things… ALREADY!
To all the artists and folks that I ran into:
DJ RTC from RubyHornet and the session engineer at Closed Sessions (his name escapes me right now), Last Rights, Dave & Rikers at Beyond Race Magazine, Crosby & Miz Metro & Hip Hop Howl, TC & David D from TheSmokingSection, Shake and Meka from 2dopeboyz, Eskay, Dominique from Leaders of the New Cool and Hollywood East, Ashley Outrageous, Shanell (#welldamn), Killer Mike, Chip The Ripper, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Fashawn, XV, Stalley, El Prez, Sean Falyon, Shawn Chrys, Tiron, Diz Gibran, Curtains, Curtis Santiago, Buff1 (who I havent run into since we battled randomly in College), Steve-O from GFC, Cherry Pop, of course the New York side of things (we were pretty heavy this year): Game Rebellion, Donny Goines, Mickey Factz, Emilio Rojas, Skyzoo, Nina B, Gordon Voidwell, CL, Alice, Neil & everyone at Digiwaxx, DJ Harry Chronic for rocking with me for a couple extra shows (heard Torae was in Austin but I didnt run into him), Dara & Billy from SubCon (I rocked the Navy Blue & Cranberry Y&I’s ALL WEEK), Rocksmith Tokyo, Vince from IM King. I definitely need to thank my phone charger for being with me for almost every minute that I wasn’t in the house or hotel room, and flash drives and serato for making show CD’s almost completely obsolete…
I know I left a lot of people out, but as we speak I’m in Houston working on a project with my twin IB3 so for now this is gonna have to do…
For anyone I left out, blame it on mental exhaustion and not my heart
E
ESSO x SXSW x HoneyMag.com
The good folks over at Honey Magazine asked me to write about my experiences at this years South by Southwest Music Festival and of course I accepted. Check HoneyMag.com over the next week for the entries. Shouts to Shanel, Erika, Nicole and the rest of the Honey staff
(and yeah I couldn’t resist the opportunity to use the Nicki Minaj screenshot LOL)
ENTRIES:
We’re All A Part Of This… [Help Haiti]
When I first heard about what happened with the Earthquake in Haiti, I was pretty desensitized honestly. Being from New York, its so easy for us to not feel any personal involvement with things that go on around us, because its a part of our every day way we operate. I had family that suffered in Hurricane Katrina, so that was very personal for me. My father was supposed to be in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and I was in DC at the time, so those events were pretty personal also. The tragedy in Haiti wasn’t personal for me, until I realized that I had a friend there.
I’ve known Martine Cauthen through friends, and then through events that her and her business partners would throw that I attended. A Few months ago, Martine had a going away party; she was going to teach for a year at a school in Haiti. None of us knew at the time that Martine would become an eyewitness and personal news anchor to all who know her whenwe celebrated her going away. Martine survived the earthquake, and has since joined in the efforts in Haiti as a nurse. Her courage should be an inspiration to us all. I donated to Wyclef’s “Yele” foundation in hopes of contributing somehow to help Haiti get back on its feet, but my contributions are superficial compared to the true heroes of this story who are on the ground in Haiti as we speak dealing with the crisis that most of us are priviliged enough to only experience on CNN. I cant wait to see Martine on Thursday at her fundraiser and give her a huge hug. I know I may not be able to do much, but I’ll do whatever I can.
E
[Hit the jump for some of the pictures that Martine has posted post-Earthquake via Twitter]
New Year, New Goals, New Music, New Outlook
Happy New Year! So New Years Eve has come and gone, Times Square has been cleaned up, and now everyone has to deal with the reality of the fact that the year that they could predict so easily before midnight on 12/31/09 is actually upon us. I brought in New Years with my family as always, and then headed out after midnight to a nice calm evening. What better way to bring the new year in than with the people that you care about.
Anyway, I jsut wanted to take a second to let you all know that I appreciate each and every one of you for your support, love, hate, misunderstanding, understanding and whatever other interaction we may have had through my music in the past 12 months. As you probably already know last year was pretty interesting for me and the whole Y&I team as we set out to make our mark on this thing that we call society. An EP and one unpredictably eerily timed mixtape later and here we are in 2010 with a chance to build on everything that we accomplished in the past year.
I have a lot planned for the new year but in reality planning is nothing without execution, so I’d like to thank everyone that made last year possible: Tory, Renny, Woody, Puma, Olivia, Paul, Denitria, Chase and all of the Y&I extended family circle as well. 2010 is here, and now we all have to continue pushing to accomplish our goals and finally come face to face with our dreams…
Cheers to progress…
E
I Need A #5 Authentic University of Michigan Jersey…
Any of you who follow me on Twitter on Saturdays should already know why. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Tate Forcier is the real deal…so for those of you who may not be UM Alum, or fans of the Wolverines, or plan on converting soon, here are the words to a little song we’d like you to start getting used to hearing again…It’s called “The Victors” Oh yea, it’s been called the greatest fight song ever written…
- Hail! to the victors valiant
- Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
- Hail! Hail! to Michigan
- The leaders and best!
- Hail! to the victors valiant
- Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
- Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
- The champions of the West!
ESSO x Woody – MusicAddicts Only Interview [video]
Woody and I caught up with MADonly.com outside of XV’s party last week at Glass lounge to talk about Off the Wall and a bunch of other things, check it out:
ESSO x HoneyMag.com Interview
Read full interview via HoneyMag.com
Shouts to Courtney and Shanel for coming through to the listening party last night also!
Emilio Sparks x ESSO Interview
Sat down with Emilio Sparks last month after shooting the “Don’t Stop” video with Puma to talk about Lifestyles of the Young & Ignorant and the upcoming Off The Wall project. Check it out
ESSO x Digiwaxx Interview
Sat down with the homie Meka up at the Digiwaxx offices on Thursday to talk about the Off The Wall project as we get closer to its release next Monday. Via Digiwaxx
XXL 12th Anniversary Issue Page 42!!!
I remember having a conversation with my dude Mickey Factz last year and saying that my 2009 needs to look like his 2008 did. Then I remember in the very beginning of the year I wrote a letter to the year called “Dear 2009″ saying just how much I needed this year to be mine. In May I dropped the Lifestyles of the Young & Ignorant EP which was the beginning of what I’ve been calling The Evolution Process which is basically the evolution of my music in front of your eyes, and then I started working on Off The Wall in April with Woody as the second piece of my evolution process then everything changed on June 25th when Michael Jackson died.
This article is so crazy because I was in the XXL offices on Tuesday June 23rd playing the finished Off The Wall project for Rob Markman (Music Editor) and then 2 days later Mike was gone. Even further than that, I’ve deadass been trying to get in XXL since ESSOcentric dropped in 2006. I’m actually really glad that things worked out the way they did because I’ve really found myself as an artist more over these 3 years and I think the timing of this couldnt be any better with Off The Wall coming out on the 30th Anniversary of its original release and EVOLVED in progress…I gotta put this on here, even if its not the full scan of the article (which I’ll have soon) but until then go cop the magazine!!! VICTORY!!
Why Despicable E?
I aint gonna lie, I check comments on blogs sometimes, and more often than not, I feel like the motives behind certain things that I may do get misunderstood. I even saw something said about this track that said that this isnt a race to be the first person to record over this track…
Nah you’re right, it’s not about that at all, but I’ve had a lot of things goin on around me recently that have kinda made me feel like I’m the bad guy no matter how good my intentions may be. So when I heard the track that Pharrell did for the soundtrack to the movie, it kinda perfectly matched how I was feeling at the time.
From the impending controversy with my Off The Wall project to the fact that I’m not trying to follow the mold of a “traditional” New York artist, to the fact that tryin to be successful takes me away from my family all the time…all of these things were on my mind, and I tried to put that all together in a way that was pretty easily digestible but still has some gems in there for those of you who like your verses to have some shit tucked away like easter eggs.
Do I apologize for it? NOPE. Do I give a fuck if it’s misunderstood? NOPE. Despicable Me. Fuck it.
E
Big L – Put It On
What it comes to Harlem bar none no one did it like L. RIP Lamont Coleman, I pass the mural walking home 3 times a week of not more lol
Lifestyles of the Young & Ignorant EP [Tracklist & Artwork]
ESSO – Lifestyles of the Young & Ignorant EP (Tracklist)
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Change Your Life (Produced by Frequency)
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Get It How You Live (Produced by Rena1ssance)
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Young & Ignorant (Produced by Whurld Ent.)
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Living Doll (Produced by Oh!)
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Doin it Again feat. John Legend (Produced by Rena1ssance)
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Nicotine feat. Lydia Caesar (Produced by The Stereotypes)
ARTWORK BY VDVL
ESSO Speaks on the EP after the jump:
Welcome RUN-DMC into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!!!
HIT THE JUMP FOR MY PERSONAL TAKE ON RUN-DMC’S INDUCTION: (more…)
