• 17Apr
• 3 Comments

Fuckin’ Facebook… lol =) Try to make this long story short, which does not happen often, I met this 29 yr old cat, Enna Emeka, from (you guessed it) Quincy, Illinois. The story is this: He connects with me on Facebook in regard to the music industry shit.. blah, blah, everybody wants a record deal sorta shit, right? But over some time, we spoke a bit, I felt his drive – so I said – when you get out here, holla at me. Sure ’nuff… he shows up in NYC, one-way ticket bound. YEAH! I had the same reaction… One way, homey? Ok well, I hope you got a plan! Mmmm.. not really, but on some black hippie type ish, again I felt his motivation. But what about the product, the music? I burned a scratched up Demo to iTunes… diggin’ it somewhat… come to find out, its not him on the mic. Its his older brother, 1 of 4 total.

Backstory: Nigerian blood, Father a high ranking employee at the local University, Enna and his bros, like most kids, grow up adoring hip hop ideals and sounds. With the strict family life, education and family support was first… and he took part in all that faithfully… til 18. After that, the spoils of “fun” got the best of Enna and he turns out to be the “troubled” brother of the other achievers. Somehow through it, these guys continue to make impressive music on sub-par equipment. Apparently, Enna is the one who MUST get them a deal.. he is on a mission.

I was worried that perhaps I had taken on a case of assistance with poor judgement, but Mr. Emeka was a real sincere guy. We share a common thread in respect and mannerisms. Yes, a lil rough around the edges; If you had passed him on Broadway he could of been mistaken for one of those “shelter kids” by the Lincoln Tunnel entrance. Nonetheless, polite as ever, mid-west mumble slang official (“they treated me”) Emeka left a good impression one me.

How?

He was confident as fuck. I’m over here like… “dude, yall got talent but… it ain’t poppin’ like that in the Industry. Yall should go for publishing and writing gigs.” He was not trying to here it. BUMP THAT. “We got it!”, he says. He was relentless. I asked a mutual (Facebook) contact and co-worker of mine, Nigil Mack, an A&R at Universal, if he remembered him… his reaction was priceless. “PSSSSH, that guy is so annoying!” But instantly, I realized as annoying as he was to get Nigil’s attention, he has successfully done so when so many other names would be hard pressed to recall for a person of his occupation.I was taking Enna around with me, Brooklyn to Newark. I took him around some young artist’ buddies, After Image Records, and he actually kicked some dope freestyles. Mmmm, nah’ they was writtens, but they was fresh. He was cutting other cats off and shit, I was like, “OK” Quincy…lol. Check this… we’re on the NJ Transit train coming to Newark and some drunk, over-worked white woman basically makes a scene, drawing he and I in, and using racist undertones as if we wasn’t catching on. Very random, very weird, but the way we both handled it – again – impressive. We both knew if we had engaged her, no matter what, he and I, as black and male as we is, would have been WRONG no matter the scenario. So humble and aware and concious are words that describe Enna as well. Kid Got Networks too! He took me to meet Jeremy Bettis who runs www.THISIS50.com. Yeah man, I thought if this kid is as annoying as I know he can be, innocently enough, then this might be a wack meeting. But hell to the naw, sure nuff, I done made a serious KANEK with Jeremy.. all via Enna.

So thats gunna round off this tale – but tune in for more. I have no clue where you can find this folks music, but here is a link to a shadyville project they did: http://www.shadyvilledjs.net/emekasons