Behind every good music scene there’s an artist whose dues are long overdue.
So it is with Esham and Detroit hip-hop. Long before Eminem, Kid Rock and Insane Clown Posse steered a spotlight toward their hometown, the east-side Detroiter, born Rashaam Smith, was giving the city a distinct and edgy reputation in the hip-hop underground.
Since his debut cassette in 1990, “Boomin’ Words from Hell,” Esham has had a career that could take the name “cult” in more ways than one. He was the first to shape what would become known as wicked or acid rap, a music influenced as much by dark metal as by hip-hop, packed with imagery from shadowy horror films and comic book fantasy. For Esham fans, Detroit had a name well before “8 Mile” hit Hollywood.
Last year, after a decade of going head-to-head with Joe Bruce and Joey Utsler of ICP–the group that got mainstream attention for its own wicked hip-hop–Esham signed a deal with the duo’s Psychopathic Records. “Repentance,” his first album for the label and 10th of his career, landed in stores last month.
The Detroit Free Press spoke with Esham about his new album, his relationship with ICP–and his ongoing beef with Eminem.
Tell us about the new record.
The listener is going to be taken on a ride–it starts off fast, goes up, turns and twists. It’s a battle between good and evil. “Repentance” is an evolution–it’s a combination of every album I’ve done. The industry is in turmoil right now. People look at the underground as the nucleus of the industry–they look to it for the new music, and the underground eventually ends up on the pop charts.
There was a time when people would have been shocked to hear you’d hooked up with the Psychopathic team.
There was never a beef between me and Joe, or me and Psychopathic. It was always more of a creative competition. There’s not a lot of support and unity in Detroit anyway. We wanted to show people you could stick together and be successful without selling out your city or yourself. A lot of people don’t realize we gave this whole city a style. We gave you Eminem. Anybody who comes rapping out of Detroit and doesn’t give us homage–they’re crazy.
You’ve certainly had your run-ins with the Eminem crew over the years. (A brawl between Esham and members of Eminem’s side group, D12, got D12 and Esham kicked off the Warped Tour in 2001. Eminem was not present.)
There are a few things [on the album] about Em, things I wanted to tell him. I think he ducks a lot of issues surrounding him. We’re supposed to be playing for the same home team.
Is there a chance for peace between you and the Eminem camp?
That’s something you’d have to ask those guys. They only hate me so much because they want to be me. I’m the Michael Jordan of this thing.
… Everything he says and does, we did it 10 years ago. Between my albums and ICP’s albums, that’s his whole career. But I’m proud of all those guys, believe it or not. It’s like a father being proud of his son.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Victoria Rodriguez ([email protected])