ESSO

BRM has done it again. We've hunted down, captured and documented the most innovative and exciting artists to recently emerge on a number of different scenes. All month long we’ll be running interviews with our discoveries to help get you ready for what’s to come in 2010. But to get a complete look at our full list of emerging artists, check out our current winter issue.

With the release of Off The Wall, his Michael Jackson-inspired mixtape, ESSO pleases both modern day and nostalgia-seeking listeners. “The idea [for the mixtape] came from…listening to Off The Wall…and getting stuck on it to the point where I couldn’t stop listening to it," he explains. With everyone paying tribute to the King of Pop, ESSO wanted to set himself apart. "I knew there were gonna be people that wanted to knock it because of how sacred Mike was…but it was also a challenge that made me want to write songs that could live up to the album that we were taking for inspiration."

BRM: Where are you from kinfolk?

ESSO: Harlem, NYC born and raised.

Tell me in less than 100 words why someone would want to live there? What keeps you there?

Harlem is a pretty unique place. On one hand, you have all of this culture, and Harlem will always be one of the centers of black culture in America. On the other hand, you have the street culture, which has been around just as long. Plus, Harlem is the only part of NYC that's not an actual borough but always gets recognized like one. And besides all that, it's home and always will be.

Unlike a lot of artists, you let it be known you attended college, where did you go and what did you study?

I went to Howard University in Washington D.C. and majored in advertising. I was also playing baseball while I was in school. To be honest I was way more focused on sports than school at the time, but I'm glad I went. I learned a lot from being there. Most people don't even realize that college is about more than just classes. School was probably my least favorite part of my college years, if that makes any sense. It's more about the experience than anything else I think.

Over the past two years you have been rapidly gaining exposure. What do you credit that to?

Everything that I've done to this point has really just been the foundation for the future. So my first mixtape in ’06 set up everything that happened after that, then the second in ’07 set up everything after ’07 and so on and so on. I think things have kinda sped up lately because I'm coming into my own as an artist, really figuring out my own sound and the kinds of things that I really want to get across as an artist. I've always been a really independent person, and it wasn't really until 2009 that I started to have a real team around me to help push things forward. They may not be the ones that get the credit when people see my name and recognize me for my efforts, but they're just as important to my success as any song that I may have released over the past year.

“Young & Ignorant,” many consider that your best record to date. What was the concept behind that record, because you are young, but I don't see ignorant?

“Young & Ignorant” really just came about from me being a rebel. It's kinda like the arch enemy of grown & sexy. “Young & Ignorant” really just describes anyone that takes their life into their own hands, ignores anyone else's rules or expectations of them and chooses to live their life on their own terms. Those are the people that I represent, and the song was kinda the soundtrack to that lifestyle I guess. I think a lot of people identified with that song because they feel the same way in their own lives, or maybe even wish that they could feel that way in their own lives.

You dropped Off the Wall LP after Micheal Jackson passed away, but I remember seeing the CD cover months before. How did you come up with that concept?

Thank my iPod for the idea! I have all different kinds of music on my iPod, from Michael Jackson to Jay-Z to Daft Punk to John Mayer to Janelle Monáe. Basically, one day back around probably February I decided to listen to Off The Wall, and the album kinda hit me like I was hearing it for the first time even though I had heard it a million times before. I'm a music dude before anything else and as I was listening to the album it just gave me this feeling that I can’t really describe in words. I thought to myself, "I wonder what this would sound like if we sampled it" and the rest is kinda history.

Unfortunately Mike passed on before we put it out, but it was actually done before he died. We chose August 10th from the very beginning because it was the 30th Anniversary of when the album originally released, and decided not to move up my release at all to pay homage to the original release. By far, my favorite project that I've done…from front to back because the process of making it was so much fun. It was just unfortunate that things went the way that they did before we released it.

In a market so strong and dominate, the resurgence is being felt by the New York emcee. How do you separate your sound or niche from the others?

With me, I think it’s actually pretty easy to separate myself, because I have a different story to tell then a lot of the other artists that are getting noticed from New York. We all have different ideas, different life experiences, and different ideas of how we want our music to sound. The beauty of it though is that we all know each other for the most part and there's always mutual respect, whether we all do records together or not. I think that's something that didn't happen as much with the last wave of New York artists that were making waves. As far as my sound, I very deliberately don't just want to recreate New York's past glory. My mantra as far as that goes is that I don't want to bring New York back, I want to be one of the people that pushes New York forward. That's the way that New York will become relevant again. The Yankees winning the World Series didn't hurt either! (laughs)

A lot of artist relocate to New York to get major deals, yet the New Yorkers who are local appear to miss this boat. Why do you believe New York artists are overlooked?

I don't know that we're necessarily overlooked. I actually have a lot of good people inside of majors that want to see me win and want to see me with a major label deal. What it really comes down to is records. Either you have a record or you don't. That's the difference between the people that make it and the people that don't make it. The people that make it are able to make records that establish them to a nationwide audience. I think with me, I understand that, and I focus on trying to make those records instead of pigeonholing myself to any sort of regional sound. You also have to remember back in ’94 and ’95, Jay-Z couldn't get a major label deal either. But he was able to make himself so relevant with Reasonable Doubt, that by the second album the majors had no choice but to deal with him.

You had your share of BS in the industry from old business relations to awards where votes aren't adding up. How do you stay focused through all the drama?

I think everyone goes through it and I'm no exception. I'm just not the type of person that's going to let any one person or any one situation stop me from getting what I want. How could I look at myself in the mirror if I really let some BS affect me so much that I let it affect my career or how hard I work for myself? There's no way I'll ever let that happen as long as I'm alive.

What does Esso have in store for his fans in 2010?

I've actually already started working on my 2010 projects. I'm gonna drop one more mixtape, The Anti-Socialite, in February, and then my debut album, Evolved, which will probably be sometime in the middle of the year. I think 2010 is going to be the year that I really establish myself at the level that I've been trying to get to since I first started. So definitely stay tuned because it's gonna get even better!

Intro by D-Dot

Words by Gabrielle McPhaul- Guerrier and Rikers

Photo by EIKNARF