7L & Esoteric - Esoteric Solo Venture

Esoteric Solo Venture

After A New Dope Esoteric embarked on a solo venture. In October 2007 he presented his debut Egoclapper on his own label Fly Casual Records, in which he took both the rhyming and production duties. A Limited Edition version was also available, packaged with bonus cd Esoteric Vs Gary Numan: Pterodactyl Tubeway. This featured Esoteric both rhyming and producing beats heavily sampling 80's Electro icon Gary Numan.

He has also sparked some comedic video entertainment with his Youtube series Pterovision which served as a bi-weekly broadcast to the 7LES fan base. The series was initially released as a build up to the release of Egoclapper.

On May 8, 2008, Esoteric released another solo venture, entitled Esoteric vs. Japan - Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo. This release featured Esoteric rhyming over beats sampled from Japanese music, TV and films, such as Godzilla, Gaiking, Force 5, Shogun Warriors and Rodan.

Esoteric's next collaboration was with rapper Trademarc and producer DC the Midi Alien. Together they form the group East Coast Avengers. Their debut album, Prison Planet, was released October 7, 2008, on underground rap label Brick Records. The album's lead single, "Kill Bill O'Reilly," quickly gained notoriety for its abrasive lyrics, and the metaphorical murder of the right wing American television/radio host, Bill O'Reilly, and former guest commentator, Michelle Malkin. Following responses by Malkin another single was released, "Dear Michelle". MySpace, owned by O'Reilly's employers Fox, has censored the songs and taken down related graphics as they were deemed too offensive. Keith Olbermann had featured their track on MSNBC during his show Countdown as the presidential race was heating up.

On 10 February 2009 Esoteric released his first solo instrumental album, Serve or Suffer which was dedicated to Marvel Comics' unsung artist Jack "King" Kirby and was featured in the Jack Kirby Museum and the NY Comic Con.

Esoteric released Saving Seamus Ryan on September 22, 2009, which featured dialogue created from sampling Harrison Ford's voice speaking to him throughout the entire album to tell one story. The CD came with a "short story" bundled in hardcover book with 50 pages. This is basically the lyrics with some extra content. The story goes from saying goodbye to his dying dog Max, in the first track (Studio Time/Goodbye) to Esoteric's character getting shot and robbed for an engagement ring. As the plot thickens, he joins up with Indie Solo, an odd character who speaks like Harrison Ford and guides Esoteric's career as the two hunt down the jewel thief, fictional character Benny Macko. The story introduces his real life dog Logan, who ultimately inspires him to see the good in the world, an example of art imitating life. The twist at the end of the book/album is that Indie Solo was indeed a figment of Esoteric's imagination.

In 2010, Esoteric released the album "Boston Pharaoh" to support his European tour with the Army of the Pharaohs. Limited to 500 physical copies, and available only on the European tour, it is still highly sought after and considered very rare. The album was later released on iTunes and Amazon for digital release. The lone single from the album is called "Palin / Vick" and draws comparisons to Sarah Palin and NFL star Michael Vick, citing their affinity for animal cruelty. The song condemns dog-fighting and wolf-hunting, yet also suggests that racism is alive and well in America due to the media's varying portrayal of Palin and Vick, both animal murderers, yet one went to jail for killing dogs and the other repeatedly shot wolves from an airplane and still ran for office.

MC Esoteric's solo career has been categorized by using obscure 80's cartoon samples and flaunting a much more personal and unguarded approach to hip-hop. He also has recently organized fundraising efforts for shelter dogs, working closely with the MSPCA. He has also appeared on a episode of the show "SuperFetch" on the Animal Planet. The episode featured his dog "Logan" being trained to do special tricks for a music video Esoteric was working on.