Eto, the grimey sound of the underground

READ THE NEW INTERVIEW WITH ETO BY THROWUP MAGAZINE

Eto, from the spanish word “ito” (as his aunt used to call him) he’s not known by many, even among the people in the box. Despite his career of more than a decade, both as a rapper and producer, in the Upstate region hip hop scene, he has been in the shadows for a long time.

Previously known as Lil E or Lil Eto, at the end of the first decade of 2000s, he boasted several mixtapes, collaborations and projects with such well-known artists of the underground scene as Dj Green Lantern, Stack Bundles (R.i.p), 38.Spesh, LA The Darkman, Willie The Kid, Beat Butcha, Ransom and the producer of Harlem, V-Don.

Eto and the producer of Harlem forged a lasting collaboration of several projects, including “Omerta-The Film”, at the end of 2016. This album boost his career opening new doors.

Eto music is not for kids

After the album “Omerta-The Film”, the rapper from Rochester (NY), known until then as Lil Eto or Lil E, decided to remove ‘’Lil’’ from his nickname. In fact, now that he’s finally making some “noise” in the underground scene, he doesn’t want his music to be confused with the sea of “Lil” rappers, multiplied like mushrooms in recent years, whose songs have contents and melodies mostly aimed at a young and unripe audience. However, it would be enough to listen, also, carelessly to any of his tracks to understand that we are not in front of a youngster neither for type of sound, nor for type of content.

Eto‘s music, in fact, exudes all the experience of a man who survived the street and the proud awareness of those who have never compromised, not even with the music industry. On the other hand, Eto‘s rhymes are aimed at a mature audience able to tune in with the mentality of those who have experienced certain situations on their own skin and can understand the subtleties of the imaginary evoked by the rhymes of Rochester’s Mc.

My name stamped, gold seal (Stamp that)
That’s ’cause I know how bein’ broke feel (I know, yeah)
I lost money, friends cost me
We start in the streets, then it ends chalky
Only thing I know is I know nothing (I don’t know nothing)
We just a whole bunch of shooters that went to Wall Street (Huh)
But we still lettin’ the blues spin
I don’t reconcile, I lose them (Forget about ’em)
Now only my lady at the booth, twin
Huh, had to tighten up the loose ends
The Blues – from Hell’s Roof (x Dj Muggs)

Rap music is the poetry of the streets

If you’ve seen certain things and lived such situations in person it’s much easier to translate it in music. In fact Eto is not a beginner in the scene, due to his great passion and attitude for this culture. For him it’s enough to stay in studio and listening to a beat, to let out in few hours a new piece.

Eto’s catalogue, is extremely wide, even if the core theme is always the same: talking clearly to the public about his experience, giving a personal interpretation of the human vicissitudes served with raw beats showing gloomy and threatening atmospheres. Eto reveals his nature as a philosopher of the inner-city, through his intimate reflections about this cold underworld scene made of violence, drugs, prison, sibling love and cheating.

Even the brand given to his music and merchandising, “New Crack Era” is a metaphor of that universe: the purpose is to bring back to life the crude and pure rap, as the crack cut down the poorest areas of America in the 90s. However, Eto tells this story with the detachment of those who survived, left those time behind and certainly does not regret it.

Now he lives of his production, supporting the family, raising and educating his children also about the differences between the Hip-Hop trends. Compared to the young generation enhanced by the abuse of drugs, his time was marked about a violent world, that still have many witnesses.

Rochester, NY, a.k.a “Hell’s Roof”

In 2017 Eto was introduced by Meyhem Lauren to the famous producer of Cypress Hill, Dj Muggs. He was looking for MCs of the underground scene to complete the last chapter of the saga “Soul Assassins” (Soul Assasins: Dia del Asesinato, 2018).

If you received a call from a legend like Muggs you must catch it and Eto knows the rules of the game; recording in a very short time the track “Duck Sauce” with the beat of the producer. On the other hand, the alchemy between the darkbeats of Muggs, the flow, the raw and introspective lyrics of Eto worked very well and they decided to record together the album “Hell’s Roof”, published in the early 2019.

“Hell’s Roof” is, in fact, the name of the criminal underworld of the native city of the rapper, Rochester, Ny; the premature tombstone for many of his generation. This town is one of the poorest in the state of New York. It’s located at the border of Canada and it can be terribly icy at certain times of the year; but on a musical point of view it has been lately ‘’on fire’’ thanks to artists such as Eto, 38 Spesh, Rigz and the closeness to the city of the hometown of the Griselda Records.

The best is yet to come…

Therefore, the album with Dj Muggs, “Hell’s Roof”, gave to Eto more visibility to churn out new projects, such as the excellent Long Story Short (2019), entirely produced by the German beatmaker Superior and the latest RocAmeriKKKa (2019) made in collaboration with Flee Lord, the rapper of Far Rockaway Queens, NY, and affiliated to the Griselda Records.

However, the feeling is that the rapper of Rochester is preserving for us the most explosive bullets of his repertoire and that his name is far from being forgotten. His name will be recorded at clear letters on the high spot of this Culture. So, don’t miss the rough diamond from the cold deepness of the American hip-hop scene.