Please introduce yourself and where are you from?

I'm Esau - The Anti Emcee, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.

So when did Esau pick up the mic?

I guess you could say I picked up the mic to record "The Debut" album, I hadn't rhymed before that, but I have been around Hip Hop for a while and was generally disgusted in the direction that it had turned, and in the general ignorance of a lot of the fans.

Tell us about your release "The Debut Album...The Farewell Tour"?

19 tracks that touch on everything from discrepancies in the bible to chasing a record deal. It's really the result of a lot of personal frustrations, so it's kind of personal and then it's also a generalization of today's society that most people don't talk about publicly.

Who handled the production and any guest artists on there?

The guest artists were: Apathy, Danja Mowf, Yaggfu Front, Blackmel, Da Wizard of Aahz, and The Nobodies.
The production was by: Phatboy, Damage from Yaggfu did 2 tracks, Da Wizard did 2 tracks, Eagleman and Equinox from The Nobodies did 1 track each.

How has the response been to "The Debut Album...The Farewell Tour"?

It has been 99% super positive, and 1% positive. I thought people would respond negatively to all of the stuff I put out in the air, but people actually respected what I was doing, and I really appreciate that.

What is your favorite track from the album?

It's hard to say, I like 4 or 5 tracks a lot, but for some reason "Me and My Baby" has been my favorite. But "First", "Boo", and "Underground" have been my favorites too. I like a lot of the tracks for different reasons. I guess when I recorded "Me and My Baby" everything came out of me so naturally, so it has always been one of my favorites.

So what's up with the Drum N Bass version of "The Debut Album...The Farewell Tour"?

It's going to be the first Hip Hop album ever totally remixed with Drum N Bass tracks. About 3/4 of it's finished so it'll will be out in the Spring 2002.

So what are your thoughts on Hip Hop these days?

Most of it's bling bling, booty songs made by people who don't care what they're telling out children and who have no imagination left in their souls. That's the commercial end of it. There's a lot of wack underground artists too, but at least most of them have souls still. I personally am a Slug fan, but there's a few more people I really like. Danja Mowf's "Words of Mowf" album is probably one of my favorite albums of all time.

We'll we see a new album in 2002?

At first "The Debut Album" was going to be the only project I was going to create. I had planned on helping Phatboy at Mends Recordings get the label tight, but as time goes on I think maybe I'll do 1 more full length. After that I'm about 99.9% certain I'll concentrate on the business end of Mends more than the music.

Any new collaborations in the works for you?

I've got a song with Yaggfu and their new release, coming out on Mends/BP Distribution in Jan 2002. And I'm doing a song with Chops from the Mountain Brothers, and me and Willus Drummond is putting out a new 12" in Jan.
I like collabs a lot, it's nice to build with someone instead of carrying the load by myself.

You were just recently on a French compilation, what was that all about?

I was contacted by the guys at waxexpress.com about a comp they were releasing in France. I told them to use "Stop Being Blinded" and the press from that has been pretty good, it's always mentioned as one of the best tracks not he compilation. It's called "Project Chaos" and it has a few known US underground artists like Bigg Jus, and a few French artists. Pretty good underground CD with varying styles on it, pick it up!

Is there a website for Esau?

mendsrecordings.com

Who are you feeling in Hip Hop right now?

Slug, Jean Grae, Apathy, K-Otix, Billie Holiday, but she's not Hip Hop!

Any final comments or shout outs?

Props to the headz that continue to produce quality, thought-provoking Hip Hop, when they could easily sell out and get a deal. I respect a lot of people for staying true to their art. That's why I think people will like the Yaggfu album, they're doing the same thing they were doing and working their day jobs! Haha!