专辑简介

Dub Esquire (a.k.a. Dub Esq) is one of those Bay Area hip-hop soldiers who has been quietly on the grind for two full decades. Since the early '90s, the Oakland-born and bred emcee has been tirelessly putting his heart and soul into his favorite art form. He is one of those dedicated hip-hop heads who may not be known on a mainstream level but yet has been paying his proverbial dues since the early '90s when he first arrived on the scene in the long-defunct but oft-referenced underground Bay Area hip-hop group Misfitz Ov Stylz. More recently he's been getting props for his solo recordings -- recordings that often blur that division between so-called "rap" and "hip-hop" with the release of the album G-13 and the EP Rap Starz. However, soon both of these fine releases will be eclipsed when, in 2012, he drops his most ambitious project yet, his album The Odyssey with its impressive line up of guest spots that include such luminaries as The Grouch, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Sadat X.

But getting to this career point in 2011 has not been easy for Dub Esquire. In the time frame between his original forays on the local scene and his more recent solo output by the artist (born Aaron York), it may have appeared like he had disappeared altogether. Truth is he was just dealing with life and all the baggage it can bring. In the case of most underground hip-hoppers life is rarely easy; typically the financial rewards are scarce and the challenges are many. But for Dub Esquire its been an especially challenging uphill road. Euphemistically, or rather poetically, he dubs a good chunk of his life as "living the struggle." Beyond all the usual ups-and-downs and drama of the rap music biz (including his crew breaking up just as they were about it make it), he found himself homeless at one point with his music having to take a backseat to the harsh realities of survival. He also worked behind the scenes of the music biz doing street promotions for a well known hip-hop label. I recently caught up with the artist to ask him about his multifaceted life and the many tangents it has taken