Esoteric

For our money, no player in contemporary hip-hop better straddles boom-bap foundations and experimental territories than Boston’s own ESOTERIC. In the past year alone, he’s ascended to the pinnacle of both alternative and underground rap circles, with tough releases like “Prison Planet” alongside East Coast Avengers Trademarc and DC the Midi Alien (“Kill Bill O’Reilly,” yee-ha), as well as conceptual feats like the Asian-inspired “Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo” and his instrumental opus, “Serve or Suffer.” Other MCs out there might not like that Eso has been snatching armfuls of Phoenix props for nearly 10 years, but now that everyone from Urb to Okay Player is also gushing, we have to say, “We told ya so.”

ESOTERIC | esoterichiphop.com