- Going to my shows, traveling around the world,
traveling with Future.
So many different people, so many different races,
all for the love of music.
Coming together, man.
Should be Colorblind.
("Xolio" by DJ Esco featuring Future, Rich The Kid, Young T)
Sonically, my inspiration for Colorblind,
was basically just custom-making the beat for the artist,
like with a Schoolboy Q, or a Rich The Kid,
and making the beat toward more so of their style.
I have Future on every song,
so his style kind of goes with everything.
This was my first album.
I wanted to be more lyrical.
I've been quiet over the years, but I've been watching,
and I listened.
And it irritates me to see that people think
certain rappers are mumble rappers
or whatever they call them, party rappers.
And I just wanted to show people
that lyricist part of the artist, of Future.
The lyricist is the part of Rich The Kid.
You might only know him from parties.
I wanted Schoolboy Q, he's a real lyricist,
I consider him a lyricist, I consider Nas a lyricist.
I consider A-Boogie a wordsmith with words.
So I wanted to put people like that on the album,
and put some content to the songs.
("Walk Thru" by DJ Esco, featuring Future and Nas)
Hearing Nas say my name on the record
means everything to me, because I wanted the younger crowd
to know that there was an Esco before DJ Esco.
Before DJ Esco, there was a Nas Esco.
No matter how hot you are,
there's aways someone who did it before you
that you can learn from.
And we're in a gender gap right now in hip-hop.
There's not in a good state with the young rappers,
and then you got the older rappers,
and there's no connection right now.
It's like, older rappers got a problem
with the younger wrappers and the way they're doing it.
The younger rapper think the older rappers are just old.
So I wanted to do something new, fresh for 2018.
OG Esco, DJ Esco, the new Esco, the OG Esco,
and put it together.
("Code of Honor" by DJ Esco, featuring Future, Schoolboy Q)
- [Charles] In the video for Code of Honor,
you start off working at a convenient store.
Did you actually work at a convenient store
ever in your life?
- No, I never worked at a convenient store.
I've only had one job ever.
That was at Magic City.
I started that when I was like 18.
So I've never worked in a convenient store in real life,
but I thought it would be cool to do with the video.
To let people know it don't matter where you started at,
you can get to the top whether you work at a gas station,
whether you sweeping floors, whether you mopping,
whether you started DJing in your basement like me.
You can make it to the top.
So I thought that was good to show,
you can come from anywhere.
I had a friend that got me in the door at Magic City.
He told me, I didn't even really know
how to DJ all the way at the time,
but I was learning as I went.
I got my foot in the door, and I took the worst shift.
Nobody wanted Monday day shift at Magic City
because Monday night shift was the night.
I was making about $30 a day,
but I only worked one day a week.
So I took $30 a week.
Then I started getting more days on my day shift.
I still couldn't get a night shift.
And then people around the city
were coming in the day time
because they were having fun in the daytime.
Just stop by, get some food.
Hey man, the DJ's kind of going hard for day time.
Who is that? That's DJ Esco?
He's DJing like it's night time.
There's nobody even in here.
You know what I mean?
But I was working on my craft.
Getting better, getting better,
for that day that I would get a night shift.
And I went from Monday day to Monday night.
And then I was the industry guy at night.
You know what I'm saying?
So I had a friend named Future,
and he was a rapper, so I was taking all his songs,
and I was sneaking them in and playing them on Monday night
during prime time.
While everyone's hot songs are getting played,
I would sneak in a Future record.
No one knew who Future was.
Future would be in the DJ booth sitting with me,
standing right next to me,
and no one would know who he was.
No one was shaking his hand.
No one knew that this was the music I was playing.
And we decided we was gonna keep it a secret,
because if they found out we were friends,
then they gonna start hatin'.
Like, oh the DJ's just playing his homeboy's songs.
That's his homeboy, that's his homeboy.
So we didn't tell anybody we were friends.
I just kept playing his record.
Kept playing it until people started saying,
who is that? Who is that?
Oh that's Future, he's hot.
I would be pumping it hard.
Future, he's hot.
You ain't heard of Future?
He's crazy.
He's the hottest in Atlanta.
Just pumping it til word got around.
Whoever Future is,
Esco at Magic City's playing this guy named Future.
They didn't know we were friends.
So we kept that a secret as long as we could,
until he got as hot,
until we couldn't keep it a secret anymore.
And by then, the cat was out of the bag.
We were gone.
("56 Nights" by Future)
I learned to transition from being behind the scenes
to now you see me jumping around on stage performing,
turned up.
That all happened from Dubai.
From 56 Nights.
You know, I was in prision 56 nights.
Right before they took me to jail,
I was trying to tell them I was a DJ,
but at the time I was so behind the scenes.
I wasn't showing my face that much.
They took me in the back room in Dubai, in the airport,
and they had a computer.
And they said, if you can pull up
your videos on the internet we'll let you go.
And I didn't have any videos.
Because I was playing behind the scenes.
I was always in the back.
I was always behind future,
or I always to the side.
I was never on camera.
So all I could pull up was mixed tapes on Google.
But they wanted to see videos.
They were like no, we want to see on TV.
If you can show us you on TV,
we can let you go right now.
And I couldn't show them.
And they took me to prison.
And I had to think about that for 56 nights.
What I shoulda been doing.
So I was like, if I get out I'm gonna be on TV
and I'm gonna be turnt,
and I'm gonna show my whole personality.
So don't ever hold back.
That's my lesson I learned from 56 nights.
("Bring it Out" by DJ Esco, featuring O.T., Genesis, Future)
Colorblind has, I think,
more powerful impact of features
than E.T. Esco Terrestrial.
I think anytime, if you're an artist,
when you drop something, you should go back
and see what you did wrong.
However successful it is, just critique yourself.
And when I went back and critiqued E.T.
I thought it had too many songs on it,
a few too many features, and it took away
from some of the great songs on it.
It watered down some of the great songs
because there were too many songs.
So I wanted to make Colorblind 11 songs.
Make it real short and sweet.
And that way you can just keep replaying it over and over
and you don't get tired of it.
(electronic zapping and swooshing)