I know it’s been a minute since I added an entry to my journal, but there’s been a whole lot going on lately, and I’ll admit I got a little bit caught up. Right now I’m caught up in crunch time. My second mixtape comes out on March 26th, which is less than a week away, and there are all sorts of last minute things that need to get handled. It’s like being up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, game seven of the World Series with the winning run on third base. By the way, as I’m writing this, I’m listening to one of only two copies of the CD…one of the products of crunch time. More on that a little bit later.
Since this journal started back in October, going on six months ago, there’s been a whole lot that’s happened in my career. I’ve had the opportunity to be on national television, national and local radio, national magazines, websites, mixtapes and shows. All of that was off the response to one mixtape. So now, with all of those things under my belt, I have to follow up the first mixtape with something even bigger and better. See it’s easy to win the first time around, because no one has any expectations. But once you start being received well and see a little bit of success, all the sudden the gloves are off and people start thinking that you can’t do it again. On top of all that, there are the expectations of the “sophomore slump” that so many fall into, which can happen when you start believing your own hype and getting gassed. With all of that pressure on my shoulders, I went back into the studio and set out to outdo myself, and to product of that is ESSObama: The Champagne Campaign.
If I had to try and count how many people have asked my why I chose to name my mixtape ESSObama I don’t know if I could do it. So let me take a second and explain where that came from. As anyone who’s turned on a TV in the next two months knows, Barack Obama has announced that he’s running for the Democratic nomination for President. The main weakness that political commentators see in Obama’s chances are his lack of experience. Now I’ve only been involved with the music industry for about two years, close to the same amount of time that Obama has been a senator from Illinois. So I thought it would be kinda crazy to use Obama’s Presidential campaign as a metaphor for my “campaign” to make it as an artist. Obama wants to be President of the United States, I’m trying to make my mark on Hip-Hop music…the two aren’t as different as most people would think.
Just like Washington is political, the Music Industry is political. The same way you have local, city, state and national offices, you have local, city, state and national artists. So lets say the City Council is the hottest artist in your city. The State Senate is the artist that’s starting to get some love outside of their city and they making some progress. The Congress is the national artist that’s signed to an independent or major label. The Presidential Cabinet is your team, and the fans are the voters…along the way you have to kiss babies, shake hands, debate (appeal to the women, get respect from the streets, battle)…starting to sound like it kinda makes sense doesn’t it. So ladies and gentlemen, without any more delay The Champagne Campaign is here. Barack ESSObama…vote for me!
GONE.
www.essomusic.com
www.myspace.com/esso
talk2esso@gmail.com