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A 24yr old lyricist raised in New Jersey, Esko is a talented emcee, dedicated to the culture of Hip-Hop. Since the age of 15, Esko has been crafting his style and expressing his emotions through the lyrics of his songs. His heart, mind, and soul go into every letter of every verse he writes. His music is a direct reflection of his life. The good times, the bad times, and everything in between. As a free spirited product of a broken home, Esko is known for his unorthodox lyrics and delivery, creative song themes, and energetic stage performance. Esko is a monster with the rhymes but also involves himself with other elements of the culture, such as Breakin', Turntablism, and Graffiti. Esko is driven by a love for Hip-Hop and a spiritual need to perform and entertain. Esko loves to make music, and his music is meant to document the life he lives and improve the the life of his fans.
- Esko - Greet The Morning (Official Video) HD
In The Press:
THE EMCEE 
Esko
Born in Florida, raised in New Jersey and North Carolina and currently
based in Southern California, Esko didnt come up like most
rappers. Growing up, his mother sheltered him from most music .
I grew up on a lot of silence, really, the 26-year-old MC says of his
upbringing. No matter: Hip-hop found him at age 15 while attending high
school in Raleigh, North Carolina. Soon, the self-professed class clown was
consumed with writing comical rhymes based on his own personal experiences.
It was something fun to do between classes, Esko recalls. My homie and I would write during class and then have little battles and compare
verses. It grew from funny joke verses to little songs but I had no idea
what I was doing. Luckily I had friends that continued to encourage me.
After taking a break from rhyming for two years, the MC in him was
reawakened when he arrived for his freshman year at North Carolina A&T
University and heard the beats that producer Sean Lane was making down the
hall. I needed to rhyme over those beats, they were too dope to walk away from. Esko recalls of meeting Lane, with whom he continues to work with today. "I felt obligated like,
OK, this music is too dope to ignore. I jumped back
into it and started writing again." Esko soon began developing a multi-dimensional style, influenced by
MCs such as Andre 3000, Method Man, Eminem and Busta Rhymes, that was as
serious and introspective as it was fun and comical. Working with Lane and a few other local artists, he recorded a debut album dubbed Behind the Shades in reference to his habit of always wearing sunglasses. There were people that had known me for years and had never seen my eyes, Esko says. The thought was that you see me every day but this is whats going on in my head. This is whats going on behind the shades.
Esko's career as an MC and student were sidetracked when he was arrested during his junior year at college. He was forced to re-evaluate his life and his plans for a career in Computer Engineering. It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, he says of the experience. It gave me a chance to get away from every direction I was told I had to be moving in, and just think how do I
want to live? What do I want to accomplish in life? Working day jobs in construction, tech support and other vocations, a fully focused Esko set about dedicating himself wholeheartedly to
rapping. In 2009, he released The Floor Model, a six-song EP on his own Walk A Mile Records which showcased his growth as an MC and earned him endorsements from Urb.com and Hoodgrown Magazine, among other press outlets. With things looking up for Esko in 2010, he decided to make a leap and leave his longtime base of Raleigh, N.C., for the greener pastures of Los Angeles. Once in L.A., he found the inspiration for what he plans to be the first in a three-part series of releases, all based around the theme of personal growth. The Seed, an album set for release in February, finds Esko relating his life story in the form of an extended metaphor involving a seed thats fallen from a tree to earth, where it is forced to rebuild from nothing. Im trying to tell you about my life and what Ive been through so you know how to deal with similar situations, Esko says.
