Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Essence of Hip Hop LIL Essence of Hip Hop. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Essence of Hip Hop, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I fell in love with Hip Hop back in 2013. I was working at the United States Post Office. One of my coworkers gave me a beat (Backseat Freestyle- Kendrick Lamar) and asked to see what I would do with it. It was in the process of writing that verse that I found my true love.
My first project was called ‘The Essence of Hip Hop Pretape.’ I used to sell them for $5 & in order to convince complete strangers to purchase it, I would perform a short 30 second sample of one of the songs from the project. I would spend hours at time selling my cds. It made me feel so alive.
My daughters were 2 & 3 at the time. Finding childcare was challenging because ‘selling a mixtape’ isn’t really considered a job to nonbelievers. Instead of giving up or using that as an obstacle to slow me down, I started taking my daughters with me to sell my Pretape. One day, I was in front of a potential customer, getting ready to spit my 30 second rhyme. To my surprise, my 3 year old started rapping my lyrics along with me. In that moment we because a mother daughter duo!
And needless to say… we made that sale.
Essence of Hip Hop, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am Hip Hop. Let me explain. Hip Hop was born in struggle. Instead of focusing on what they didn’t have, the pioneers of Hip Hop used what they had to create something beautiful. I am a artist who is also a mother. I could’ve used the lack of childcare/support to hold me back. But instead, I choose to bring my daughters on this journey with me. And because of that decision, we became the FIRST mother/daughter duo in our industry.
That’s what sets us apart. We have a beautiful opportunity to leave our mark on Hip Hop history. No matter what industry you’re in, please don’t let obstacles stop you from becoming the person you were meant to be. As the #1 motivational speaker in the world, Dr. Les Brown would say, there’s GREATNESS in you. You just have to leave your comfort zone in order to realize that.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I remember being homeless here in Atlanta, wondering if I missed the mark. I knew God told me to come here but after a while, I started to question if that was truly his voice. When experiencing something as traumatizing as homelessness, you learn to develop survival tactics. Behaviors, mindsets, and actions to get you through the day. It took me a while to unlearn those behaviors. The biggest one being my appearance.
When we were homeless, the LAST thing on my mind was how I looked. I started off with a ‘don’t look like what you’re going through’ mentality, but after a while, it slowly turned into more of a ‘you don’t know what I went through just to BE here, so please don’t judge me’ mentality. We’ve been settled in our 3-bedroom townhome for a while now but even NOW I catch myself putting on something CONVENIENT, quick and clean, rather than something that represents who I am. I just don’t care anymore. Which, again, is something I have to unlearn.
There’s one other thing that I must acknowledge. Part of the time that we were homeless, we lived in a hotel that cost $50 every single night. In order to pay for it, my daughters & I would spend all day going to different malls & rapping for tips and donations until we had enough money to pay for another night (or 2) at the hotel. While rapping, I noticed that the customers got EXTREMELY excited when they saw my 3 year old rapping! Keep in mind, I’m still in survival mode, so I would give them what they wanted, more of her and less of me. i was doing whatever it took (within reason) to make sure we had a place to stay that night. After a while, I started getting comfortable in the background. So much so, that at THIS point, people don’t even realize I’m a artist too. That’s another thing I hope to unlearn.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I would have to say our celebrity encounters. Every time you turn around, we’re posting another video of us showcasing our talent to a major artist or influencer. People always ask us what the secret is. How do you meet so many people? I call it ‘staying in alignment.’ In the beginning, we would go to the mall on a random day, at a random time, and cross paths with a major celebrity. That simple. These days, if we see an event involving someone we want to meet, I’ll say to myself (and my kids) ‘we’re going to meet this person,’ and it happens every single time. We believe in speaking things into existence. This is literally clockwork.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @lilessenceofhiphop @essenceofhiphop
- Facebook: LIL Essence of Hip Hop / Essence of Hip Hop
- Twitter: @_lilessence @essenceofhiphop
- Youtube: @lilessenceofhiphop @essenceofhiphop
Image Credits
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