ESG: All Screwed Up

[themovie]

Houston's rap scene is about as diverse as its many neighborhoods. For every playa on the Southside, there is a gangsta from the North. For every Eastside chulo, there is an underground lyrical stylist hiding out in the jungles of the dirty Southwest. For every 5th Ward Boy, there is a Psyko Ward MC, waiting for battle. It goes on and on. But the main plex, or beef, if you will, lies between the Northside and the Southside, and the differences go a little deeper than hairstyles or blue and red cars. Of course, rap cliques in Houston rarely get violent, but even rarer still do they hook up to form the flyest independent label to date. Yet this is the story of S-E-S Entertainment: Sinclair "Big Sin" Ridley, ESG, and Slim Thug.

The Screwed-Up Click has dominated the rap scene in Houston with a heavy hand for the past ten years. Out of that crew have come many talented Southside MCs-Fat Pat, Lil KeKe, Lil Flip, Big Moe, and, of course, the Freestyle King himself, ESG. Now, they do things a little differently on the Northside. Aside from having to watch your back at all times when you go out at night over there, the rhyming styles are a lot cooler that those on the Southside of Houston. Rap-A-Lot left a legacy of pure, deep gangsterism that has been quite the norm for Northsidians, until Michael "5000" Watts came on the scene. His Swisha House label, freshly stocked with a stable of young, cocked and ready MCs were poised to make some noise in Houston, and shine some light back to the North. And shine they did. The brightest of the lot is Slim Thug, who is currently 1/3 of S-E-S Entertainment. When Slim hooked up with Watts at the tender age of 18, he had the title of CEO in his infrared scope, not just rapper status. "I already had a plan," he says. "I got a lil somethin' on the rap shit, I see my hustle. I'm finna run with it, but from the beginning I was like, I wanna be CEO in this." Shortly after Swisha House began to blow up, ESG and D-Wreck of Wreckshop Records invited Slim to drop a few lines on the first Northside-Southside collabo ever, "Braids and Fades" from ESG's "Shinin' & Grindin'" (1999). "It was a bunch of Northside-Southside plex goin' on back then," Slim remembers. "We did that song there, and come to find out, it brought a lotta peace to all that ol' [clique] shit."

So cool meets hot. Water meets fire and it's still all good. Where Slim Thug is cool like icicles, ESG is a Southside street talker, quick to spit game and got lyrics to go. ESG brought fame to the Southside with his 1994 ode to the ride, "Swangin' & Bangin'". That led to a series of records deals that finally landed him with Wreckshop Records, now home to Big Moe, D-Gotti, and Big Pokey, also members of the Screwed-up Click. He remained a loyal follower of the Wreckshop Family until contract disputes forced him to play his hot hand and bounce. "What I really learned over there," he says, "was you can't mix a lotta pleasure with your business."

After ESG's departure from Wreckshop, things were up in the air for a minute. The streets were wondering, what's going to happen to ESG? For somebody who has sold over 600,000 units independently, he needs a strong label to handle him. Then DJ Screw, ESG's mentor, good friend and founder of the Screwed-Up Click, passed around the same time, adding even more drama to the mix. A storm of confusion was brewing, with little hope in sight.

Enter Sinclair "Big SIN" Ridley. Trained as an engineer, this behind-the-scenes super-producer brought in some cool California breezes to clear away the madness. Big Sin has produced tracks for No Limit, Rap-A-Lot, Ideal, Too Short, B-Legit, and a host of others. He met ESG while producing a few tracks for the "Shinin' & Grindin'" (1999) album, ESG's last project for Wreckshop. When ESG and Slim Thug decided to form their own label, Sinclair was the obvious choice for a third partner. His business expertise, coupled with his superior production skills, has SIN and S-E-S Entertainment poised at the brink of ghetto super stardom. SIN's sound is full, layered, and rich, with new sounds popping out every time you listen to it. It serves as the perfect backdrop for the ghetto life tales that ESG and Slim Thug spin. "We're coming with music the way it's supposed to come out of Houston," SIN says. "Tight production, superior lyrics, just all-around greatness. Not like the level of mediocrity that we've been seeing lately. If you've got a major label budget, use it."

S-E-S Entertainment is the New Rap Order for the South. Their first release, "Boss Hogg Outlawz" dropped last month, selling 30,000 units the first week alone. The first single, "Thug It Up", features Bun B of UGK, and hits hard in the clubs. ESG's slammin' hook takes you back to when "Swangin' & Bangin'" first came out: "Thug it up/ Everyday of the month/ Anything I swang gotta have bang in the trunk…" The next single, "Get Ya Hands Up" is a super-crunk anthem that is sure to have hands going, heads bobbing and feet jumping every time it comes on. Carmen San Diego makes an appearance ("Dirty South"), fellow Screwed-Up Clicksters Lil O and Lil KeKe ("Street Millionaire", and "Down Here"), but the dopest cameo comes from Zero on "We Ain't Trippin' No Mo." His haunting hook ("Too many haters/ still tryin' to take me off of my game/ See a young player grippin' wood, lookin' good/ Growed up, man we off tha chain…") came from a freestyle session done while filming the documentary on Fat Pat's life "Ghetto Dreams". Zero is definitely one to watch out for.

This collaboration between the Northside's finest and the Southside's shiniest is a match made in Houston Hip Hop heaven. ESG's rapid-fire delivery, Slim Thug's laid-back and cool demeanor, teamed with SIN's thick, sticky tracks is all they need to get by.

allhiphop.com

[S.G.V.]

plese believe e.s.g. is an o.g....hes one of the original members in the s.u.c....hes the really freestyle king of the south....