Underground Memories 101 ESHAM: Creator of ACID RAP and Detroit Wicked Shit

I think by now, it is pretty clear that I place a tremendous amount of value on the history of the underground sound. America is big place and there are lots of scenes scattered around the country, all housing their own particular style or brand of the “underground music”. I think they all have value and deserve to not only be remembered, but also celebrated today, tomorrow, and for the next thirty years. How do we do that? The answer is simple, we record, document, and share our history with the world. I’m calling on cats from all over the United States and homies in other countries to preserve the music, memories, and everything in between.

 

As we are all aware, nothing stays the same forever. As much as I wish it was still 1997, if it had not come and gone, I could not remember and celebrate it. Its the same basic principles when you talk about life I suppose. It would be great to live forever, but it would change the meaning of what it actually meant to live a life. In my mind, dying is what makes us human. This might be a bit heavy but imagine if you never had to die. Without the fear of not being here anymore removed, is it possible that it would cheapen how we interacted with life?

 

If I was here forever, I don’t think anything would have the same feel to it. Time is a pain in the ass, but its that urgency that is created by time, that makes the limited access to various states of being mean something. If I never progressed due to immortality, I could never reflect on what was with fondness and longing. Maybe time isn’t so bad after all. Although I never seem to have enough of it, I often have too much. It’s a weird set up. So anyway….I’m older now and I do a lot of looking back.

 

Sometimes it’s because I miss the “way things use to be” or “things were so much better then” or “those were the best years of my life” or some funky shit like that. I’m forty years old and to be honest, I never thought I would make it this far. I always figured I’d die in a fiery blaze of youthful indiscretion or maybe I just didn’t pay the distant future much mind. It’s easy to get locked into “today” and maybe some of tomorrow, but beyond that, who cares? When I was twelve in 1992, time moved so damn slow. I was fucking bored out of my mind a lot, or fighting with the parents about music or clothes or some shit that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. At the time, things could either be “so important” or “barely matter”.

 

I clocked time by school years,  standard milestones, and by music. In the early years I was a rap head and was pretty lucky to catch a golden era from the late eighties unfold into the mid nineties. There has always been good music made, no matter what year it is, so no one has to take offense. I’m just saying how it was for me from my perspective.

 

As a person rolls through their life, everyone on their own tiny private journey, they have the ability to fill that space with whatever they want. Some people collected baseball cards, others played Nintendo, but the thing that really got me going was the music. I’ve already covered a lot of my influences in other articles so I will skip that part and get right to the reason why we are here today. ESHAM. That is one word (East Side Hoes And Money-possibly more) and yet it represents so much to me.

 

ESHAM. When I say it, I’m whipped back in time, to the early nineties and I can see America exactly how it was in the moment, or at least  in Michigan anyway. My travels outside of the state were somewhat limited but I did manage to get to CALI a few times and down south here and there.

Regardless, by the early 1990’s ESHAM was already considered a god in the underground rap scene in Michigan. No can dispute that. No one. He had dropped the infamous Boomin Words From Hell in 1989 and was light years ahead of his time. Some of my favorite songs on the cassette tape included Word after Word, Some Old Wicket Shit, and the Devil’s Groove.

I had never heard anything like this before from either coast. It was different, wicked, and on a whole another level. If you were from Michigan and keyed into local rap, which by that time I was, it was an exciting time to be around. There were a few other big names in the underground, who had gotten rolling by that point, including Insane Clown Posse, Kid Rock, and a few others. But those three dominated the landscape at the time. There could be favorites and opinions, but the fact was that the King of the Scene and the music style belonged to ESHAM The Unholy.

Boomin Words From Hell was really dope and what made the cassette stand out even more was the fact that it was blood red. On the face and inside of the cassette, there was also another iconic symbol that simply captivated me then and still does today (so much so that I got the logo tat’d on both sides of my chest back in 2000). Yes ladies and gentlemen, I’m speaking about the one and only Devil in The Moon logo, that the label used as well, REEL LIFE PRODUCTIONS.

It’s one thing to have a great sound, that is unique and mind blowing, but even the cassette was a piece of wicked art. I could stare at this shit for hours and still smile. If ESHAM had said “fuck it” and never made another album, I’d still be talking about it today.

The thing about a musical genius like ESHAM though is that he could crank this shit out like General Motors was producing cars in the “Motor City”. He was the GM of dope ass music. But don’t take my word for it. Like I was saying earlier, time is a funny thing and sometimes it takes a minute and a little distance to see what the hell it is your looking at. All I see today is perfection and that’s why we have to keep the knowledge around for the younger cats coming up.

If for nothing else, than to show the new school, that this is how you do the wicked shit. Music changes with time, as we discussed earlier, but these albums will always be a good gauge on where a new schooler is at. I would liken these albums to REEL LIFE road signs on I-96 or I-75. If an artist has good graphics, a nice presentation, dope beats, and killer lyrics….your on the right road.

After Boomin Words From Hell, ESHAM dropped some of EP’s called Erotic Poetry (1990) and Homey Don’t Play! (1990). I have copies of both of these and if I remember correctly, I got them both at Wyatt Earp Records in Flint. Not when they were released, but when I got a little older and could get to the record shop to buy them. Its hard when your ten to string that kind of shit together and I wasn’t quite there yet.

ESHAM for me was basically discovered by reverse engineering. I had been exposed to Inner City Posse’s Dog Beats, became a fan of them, got into the C.O.C. era and then worked backwards. which led me straight to ESHAM. Sometimes distribution issues would come up and Wyatt Earp Records might not have any ESHAM material in stock for months at a time. This drove me fucking crazy as a teenager, when I could actually grab the family wagon (Geo Prizm shit box) and twenty dollars to get some shit. Even if there wasn’t any thing available for purchase, I would listen to the owner Doug tell amazing stories about his music and shows. Doug liked everything or at least whenever I talked to him about music, he always seemed to have that inside line. It makes sense looking back, a Record Store owner not keyed into the underground could lose valuable dollars.

In 1992, after releasing the EP’s, which included Helterskkkelter (also the same year), E did something that I consider amazing, especially at the time, and that was release a double album on two CD’s. Named Judgement Night Vol. 1 and Judgement Night Vol. 2 (April of that year).

That was a big time move, I mean…who really did that? In the underground scene? Fucking nobody. So again, the man drops a concept album (double) and on top of that, his art work for the two albums “match up” to form a fucking insane looking piece of art (yes art). I took a picture of my copies lined up to show the readers what I mean by “match up”. Of course it was a brilliant move from a marketability stand point as well. Who in hell was only going to buy one? Shit….everybody keyed into this had to have both of them. Songs that could flip your wig included Mama was a Junkie, I met this little girlie, and I’d rather be dead on Vol. 1, but everything on there could basically produce the same effect. Vol. 2 had just as much going on and with some serious fucking lyrics and concepts. This wasn’t the kind of shit that you play at the middle school dance. I had to keep this shit hidden in the rafters and could never turn it up past two or three on my boom box. The parents were not big fans of Acid Rap, ESHAM, or his 7 Mile Mentality.

It was still the 1990’s and walking around jamming satanic grooves with shirts sporting devils was interesting. Today, a lot of the steam has been let out of balloon so to speak (or NOS). People can walk around wearing anything they want and no one bats an eye. I will tell you that when I wore my NATAS shirt with two pitch forks and my camouflaged pants and Chucks Taylors to the Grocery Store, old people wanted to fucking kill me. There was open hostility sometimes for wearing the gear that went along with the underground back then and people back then felt like they could take offense to literally anything that wasn’t “normal”. I got the same reaction wearing a Shaggy 2 Dope “FUCK OFF” shirt to VG’s on the south side of county one time. People did not like the underground. So if you meet an older fan of the scene, especially in their forties (early). Shake their hand and say thanks. The fans had a lot of love for this music back then and sometimes risked a little trouble to represent. Cops didn’t respond well either. But people were spray painting their cop cars in my town, so who could blame them (true story). Can you imagine, going in to take a shit, and coming out to “ESHAM” and “NATAS” and “666” spray painted onto your ride? Uh….Chief…..I’ve got a problem. But enough of that. It was the 1990’s, what the fuck.

So back to the story, ESHAM. The Original and never duplicated king supreme of the underground. Well, he kept making that dope shit like Willy Wonka kicked out candy bars. It was unbelievable. It was also a strain on the budget because I was broke most of the time and had to try and maintain musical library’s for ESHAM, NATAS, ICP, and Project Born.

I got my license in 1996 so I was able to get to Wyatt Earp Records a little easier, but chasing down the underground sound, wasn’t always so easy. I dreamed of the day that I could go to the shows. The artists of the time did some in stores and meet and greets so that was great, and became an excellent opportunity for fans to connect with their favorite artists. Something that I wish would come back or at happen more frequently. I think it’s important for the fans to be able to connect with their heroes, it makes the entire experience more real and special. That type of connection can transcend the decades. The guys in Detroit knew how to cultivate a fan base and maintain it, which is probably why your reading this article today. For the new school cats, pay attention to what came before, you could learn some valuable practices in the process. Not that the new schoolers are doing anything wrong, I’m just referring to that bullshit phrase “best practices”. If something can generate results, use that shit. And above all, keep the history preserved. If you treat the old school with pride and respect, the kids coming up will see that, and in turn will do the same for the artist currently out on the beat. I guarantee it. If we abandoned what came before, then there is a good chance that people could do same to what’s going on now. I don’t want to see that. Ever.

ESHAM would continue to drop music with KKKill the Fetus in 1993 and one of my favorite ESHAM albums of all time, that’s right….none other than CLOSED CASKET in 1994. Now this is where I really get excited about the music. I was already digging on the music, but sometimes an artist drops a track or in this case (of course) a whole album that I could not stop listening to. I loved every song. My little brother Arin loved every song. My friend’s Wayne, Chad, Andy, and Tim….loved every song. It was such a perfect blend, that it somehow got caught up in the time space and just stayed there. I will always permanently reflect on my first two years of high school and associate that album with that time period. I don’t care. If I live to be eighty five, I will be mumbling Flatline to the medication nurse at the old folks home that my kids abandon me in. When I hear Make me wanna holla, I can only think about driving through the city on a cold sunny day, windows down, black and milds burning, speakers blowing from the bass…Hell I’m there right now. If you can make music like that, that can transport me back after twenty six years, I will buy it…always.

Mental Stress is a track that, in my own opinion, may never be topped….by anyone other than ESHAM himself. “He should never even see day light again…ever. I have apologized publicly for the mental anguish, mental stress and emotional stress that I subjected those people too….I feel bad about it….I feel bad about it…I feell bad about it…I feeeel baaaad abbooouuut iiittttt….”

 

Diggin on the D-L…..That song is so good that it makes me sick. I’m sick of trying to come up with super dynamic words to describe this music but there it is. Make good shit….drive writers crazy. Its a timeless G track that no one can deny. All the songs on this album are the same way. I don’t really have the room to describe them all, or the words to do them justice. Due to the fact that we are running out of time for this piece, we 

will have to leave it at 1994 until next time. So keep coming back and we will pick up from Closed Casket on the next edition of “Underground Memories 101 ESHAM: Creator of ACID RAP and Detroit Wicked Shit”

Thanks for all those that stopped by tonight to remember, learn, or just plain celebrate the DETROIT HISTORY. Never forget, never lose it. Till next time.

 

Signing off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

shepard2909@hotmail.com

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