From the humble beginnings in Hialeah, FL to Grammy-Award winning songwriter, producer, and artist; Eskeerdo can’t and won’t stop. He prides himself on not being able to be boxed creativity. His mental is ‘go get’ with a mission to consistently evolve. The streets raised the man and the music gave him fame, although he still feels like he hasn’t made it. After the many successes Eskeerdo is not satisfied, still just as hungry as he has ever been. That is what continues to drive him day-by-day. As a Proud Cuban-American, he grinds extremely hard, but plays even harder. Just moments after breakfast at a familiar around the way joint earlier this week, I was was able to catch up with the female-friendly gent, born Alexander Izquierdo. We shared quite many laughs and even spoke into existence an official release date for Cuban Jesus. Eskeerdo just announced it on Friday, July 22nd via social media. The release date seems to be set for August 5, 2016. In part 1, we chatted about his upbringing, his influences, his start in music, and his artistry.
Eskeerdo: We just had a long weekend of “Weekend Behavior.” Had to put that plug in there one time.
RESPECT.: I know that’s right. I heard that, I peeped it. Were you eating something a few minutes ago? I saw you on IG.
Eskeerdo: Yeah, I went back to my hood and just got the fu**ing cheap a** breakfast. $2.50, you get eggs, you get I think lychee, you know Cuban bread, toast, you know all type of stuff; $2.50.
RESPECT.: Oh you can’t beat that for $2.50. You can’t beat that with a stick. (Laughs)
Eskeerdo: Nope!
RESPECT.: Well that’s what’s up. First of all, I definitely want to say I respect your grind. I read about your come up story, how you came up and everything and I definitely respect that.
Eskeerdo: Thank you so much and by the way I really appreciate everything that RESPECT. does and how much they support me. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I really appreciate that. I wanted to set that, you know let that be known off top.
RESPECT.: Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate it. We definitely respect you. So for those people that really, that may not know who you are, how would you describe Eskeerdo to them?
Eskeerdo: Well, Eskeerdo is a Cuban-American artist/songwriter, you know Entrepreneur, hustler, just an all around go getter, you know someone who can’t be told no because my whole life they been trying to tell me no and I’ve just been proving people wrong my entire life; is somebody that perseveres and grinds through it all. That’s the thing, the only “L” I take is a learn. You know what I’m saying, I never lose. That’s just my mentality is just like we manifest everything in our lives and we pray and we go get what we just prayed for.
RESPECT.: Absolutely and I like the fact that it’s almost as if you can’t be boxed. You’re a person that like you said you don’t take that, you don’t take no for an answer; ‘I’m not gonna be boxed. I’m gonna go get it and make it happen no matter what!’
Eskeerdo: Exactly! What I like to say is I just want to continue adding walls to my craft as an artist and business man. I never want to cap off, I never want to seal it. I just want to keep adding walls and keep on going as high as it can go, but I’m never gonna be boxed in, can’t. That’s when you lose because when you box yourself in, you know you get comfortable, you start getting complacent. I can’t be like that.
RESPECT.: Exactly.
Eskeerdo: I’m trying to work really hard and not be satisfied.
RESPECT.: I can definitely respect that and same here. I have that same mentality. That’s the best way to be. In Dade County, FL, growing up, in a small part of Miami, how was it growing up there? What were your humble beginnings like?
Well, growing up in a, you know primarily Hispanic and African-American community in Hialeah, Florida, I was brought up, we stayed in an efficiency, which is a room attached to a house. These people buy houses and they break them up in to a bunch of sections to make more money. So we stayed like a lil’ cut, it was 5 of us, me, my brother, my mom, my dad, my uncle, you know so they made do. I always saw my parents, I didn’t realize how less fortunate we were because my parents worked extremely hard to give me everything that I needed so I didn’t even notice. I just thought that s**t was regular life until you get older and start realizing s**t was f***ed up, but you can still make do with what you have and that humbled me off top so the neighborhood was tough, but it’s obviously other neighborhoods in my city that are way worse and it just taught me how to hustle. Again, like my city is full of immigrants, no papers, they come here and for some reason they got a house, they got a brand new whip, their driveway f***ing just got paved. I’m looking around like mo**er f***a’ you just got off the boat! You just landed here from Cuba. How the f**k you got all that, but it just teaches you that yo if somebody can come here with no papers you know what I’m saying and bust they a** and get it and you’re born here, you’re a citizen in this country then how can you not make something happen. Really my city taught me how to hustle. It taught me that yo you gotta go get this s**t, nothing is gonna get handed to you so that was really my upbringing watching my dad, have a business successful, lose it, end up living in a truck. You know getting back successful, losing it again, ended up back in that m***af***ing truck. Then going back to being successful, that s**t alone is like you can’t keep a real one down. That’s just the truth.
RESPECT.: That’s right. Well I definitely dig what you are saying on that. I know that you dropped out of school at 15.
Eskeerdo: 15 years old, yup.
RESPECT.: Do you ever feel like you kinda regret that or do you ever feel like it affected you in any way or you feel like it only made you who you are?
Eskeerdo: Well, you know again like, I don’t feel like I have taken any L’s. I feel I have only learned. I definitely don’t, I’m not saying to the kids yo drop out of school, education is the most important thing first and foremost. You know, my circumstances were a little different. I needed to work to help out you know what I’m saying so I couldn’t be in school. Not only that, it was getting into trouble and all that s**t. I was getting into trouble more in school than I was out of school so I had to just go ahead and make that adjustment so I mean realistically I always tell everybody in my case I don’t got a high school diploma, but I have two Grammys so I kinda worked out best for me.
RESPECT.: I heard that. I ain’t mad at you. (Laughs) so it all happened for a reason.
Eskeerdo: Exactly, like again it was tough, but I had my mind set on the goal and we attacked and we’re continuously trying to meet you know our goal. We haven’t hit it just yet, you know we’ve hit some milestones and some markers, but we haven’t effectively hit the target where I want to hit it yet so that’s what I kept telling you earlier about adding the walls, not being satisfied, because you know there are bigger things to this than just the music aspect of it, you know.
RESPECT.: Exactly. So you still don’t feel like you’ve actually made it where you want to be..
Eskeerdo: Hell no!
RESPECT.: So what do you feel like, what’s next for you outside of the music? What would you say you want to do, that you want to accomplish, that you want to make happen, or knocking down walls; what is that you want to do?
Eskeerdo: This is gonna make you laugh. This gonna make you laugh, but I’m gonna be honest. I want to be the first rapper slash artist, male artist with a shampoo.
RESPECT.: With a shampoo?
Eskeerdo: Yeah, I got this long luxirious Jesus hair, you know what I’m saying.
RESPECT.: (Laughs)
Eskeerdo: I just want you to walk down aisle 3 and look down, look to the right and you see Dove with my face on the m***af***ing bottle, like that’s what I want.
RESPECT.: (Laughs)
Eskeerdo: Like you know what I’m saying, I’m just trying to create other streams of revenue, you know what I’m saying. I really think that, you know, that I’m gonna do that. Like it’s funny when you fast forward in a couple of years, you like yo this man is on a shampoo bottle. He manifests that back in this RESPECT. interview, like I’m dead a**, I want to do things like that. Obviously, you know acting, that’s something in the near future and I want to open up a school in my city for the arts. That’s one of my dreams. Being able to just open a school for the arts in Hialeah, FL and really just show these kids that listen, you can get an education and still follow your dreams if this is what you want to do.
RESPECT.: Okay, I like that.
Eskeerdo: That’s some of my primary, and once I get that shampoo I’m gonna send RESPECT. a big ol’ case.
RESPECT.: Absolutely and I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to it. I’m gonna make sure I use that.
Eskeerdo: Dope.
RESPECT.: So I know your grind has been compared to Kanye West like the “5 beats a day for 3 Summers.” How does that make you feel for your hustle to be compared to that?
Eskeerdo: I mean like that’s probably the greatest comparison and I’m super flattered that, you know you guys would even compare me to the great Kanye West, somebody that I admire and had the pleasure to work with, but it’s tough man because every man has their own path and realistically that’s a different world, like 3 summers I mean I’m from Miami where you know we had 5 summers, you know what I’m saying and I didn’t have AC growing up so them songs had to get written some way, some how to get some AC so..
RESPECT.: I know that’s right.
Eskeerdo: So it’s tough. I mean, I mean like m, Kanye or anybody that’s ever been told no from Abraham Lincoln to Michael Jordan to Walt Disney, to anybody who who’s great and who believes in themselves over anything will perservere through failures and made something amazing happen. I mean that’s who I compare myself to.
RESPECT.: Absolutely. So how did you actually get your start in music? What was the beginning and how did that kick off for you?
Eskeerdo: Man, so my first start in business, in music was songwriting actually. We didn’t know anybody, but at the time I was being managed by MixtapePrinting.com, dudes named Miquel Cordoso and George Marquez and they allowed me to drive their delivery truck and basically they were managing me. They would let me go or if I needed to go to Atlanta or if I needed to go to NY, or if I needed to go to LA, like they would basically put the money up and put me somewhere, whether I had to greyhound or fly, they’ll pay for everything, but it was obviously budgeted. It was convenient cause I would still be able to come back and drive the truck and make some bread and then fly out. That was my life, you know and then we met this dude named Lex Bararo, who was an aspiring A&R, entrepreneur, music executive and Lex through a festival beck in 2008, called Beats on the Beach and I performed for a bunch of A&Rs and funny enough when I performed I told all the A&Rs to go f**k themselves, that I’m gonna get it with or without them, which was pretty stupid on my hand cause they actually enjoyed the show. That’s how I got my start, ironically, but you know Lex, I stepped to him and I was like I don’t want to be artist anymore just yet, I want to do this songwriting s**t. That’s why I told all of them to go f**k themselves, can you help me out and he was like, yeah sure, but it was all like a master plan cause in my mind I was a Hispanic in Hip Hop is super tough, you know and being accepted, well not necessarily being accepted, cause I don’t give a f**k about being accepted. I care about putting out dope music, but just being heard and people like taking it serious itself; so I was like f**k it what I’m gonna do is get in this building as a songwriter. I’m gonna write hits for others and then I’m gonna come back and I’m gonna finish the dream, which is be an artist. That’s basically where we’re at now. Lex met some people who met some people who met some people and we got some opportunities, you know my first placement was with Diddy. We took that one and we milked that m***af**kin’ cow til it was sucked dry, went to every label, ‘you gotta give us a chance, you gotta give us a chance,’ and put me in the studio. I don’t give a f**k if it’s 20 hours a day, I don’t care, put me there and give me a chance to write, that’s what it was. That’s really how we ended up, you know, we ended up taking baby steps forward.
RESPECT.: Absolutely, wow. So the song that you wrote for Diddy, tell me about that.
Eskeerdo: Aw man, Jesus. Father Puff, I love Puff, you know he gave me my first shot in this business, but I am so embarrassed of that song. I don’t like to say, you know cause it’s crazy. It’s a record called “Diddy Bop.” Puff actually kept me on the chorus, but I was just like yo, you know Diddy loves himself. You know what I saying I’m gonna write a song, ‘Do the Diddy, Diddy, do the Diddy, do the Diddy bop, step on the scene, the city stop, watch me Diddy bop…’ I was feeling myself as if I was Diddy, pause, you know what I’m saying, but like, that’s really what happened. It translated, he loved it and then we took that opportunity and we turned it into a bunch of other placements.
RESPECT.: That’s amazing.
Eskeerdo: Yeah, but I’m proud, but I’m still like man , I did Diddy Bop. Fuck. You know, in my mind.
RESPECT.: (Laughs) I understand, but it only made you who you are even more so that’s okay.
Eskeerdo: Yeah I get it, it is what it is. It’s just so funny that that’s your first record, you know.
RESPECT.: Right.
Eskeerdo: People be like, yup that’s my first one!
RESPECT.: (Laughs) So when did you actually know you wanted to do music? When did you know you wanted to song write, do your own music, when did you know that?
I mean, I’ve always been surrounded by music. The arts have been in my life for a long long time. My grandfather was a qua punto juaquito (Eskeerdo, I tried to spell it), but you are probably not gonna know how to spell that. I don’t even know how to spell it, but it’s basically like a Cuban rapper with a banjo. Yeah, it was crazy. I used to see him at these little bars playing his banjo singing and rapping in Spanish. My other grandfather, on my mother’s side used to draw. I’ve always been around the arts. My cousins early on in life, did music, Mario. It was just always around. I can remember as far back as third grade, me rapping, pencil on the desk rapping type s**t. So I always had a passion for it, you know what I’m saying.
RESPECT.: Absolutely.
Eskeerdo: It’s the beginning. I’m thinking about it now, like yeah, I think I came out singing and rapping. Came out the womb like that.
RESPECT.: Absolutely. That’s how I am with writing. At the beginning, I pretty much came out the same way with a pen in my hand and a piece of paper.
Eskeerdo: That’s what up.
RESPECT.: So who were some of your music influences from the beginning that you can say actually influenced you to do what it is that you do?
Eskeerdo: Well, first and foremost I was raised on Trick Daddy, you know what I’m saying, being from Dade County. He taught us all, you know you gotta love your city so that’s first off rip. Pitbull, those two making it out of the city, Trick and Pit, really made me want to rep for Dade super hard, but on the musical end you know I was an early Nas fan, Kanye, The Dream, Eminem, Jay, Biggie. I wasn’t too much of a Pac fan, I loved him, but I was leaning more to Big’s stories. I loved the fact he was a revolutionist, but I wasn’t on the Pac side I can’t even lie. Sorry West Coast, I love y’all too. Just mainly them, I just loved real rappers, you know what I’m saying and it’s tough of that because I fall into the category of more melody rap too, but I’m a fan of rap, you know what I’m saying, like that’s why I like Drake so much, you know what I mean. He makes great songs, but he’s a rapping ass rapper. He can rap his a** off and I’m just a fan of rap! Pusha, you know he a rapper. So many of these dudes, even Jay still man, like early Fat Joe shit. So much like, Pun. Like so many, like the rap, like real rap, I love f***ing rap! Then, I still loved all music. I’m just thinking about I can just ramble on day. Jeezy still one of my favorites. You know, two of my most favorite albums ever, The Recession and Thug Motivation 101. I get excited when I start thinking about like the rap I love because it’s hard nowadays.
RESPECT.: Yes
Eskeerdo: It’s hard to find rap that I love, you know. I’m one of those rapping a** rappers, but I just fall into a different category because I’m giving the people what they want.
RESPECT.: Right, absolutely. Well I know you wrote and produced for a lot of heavy hitters and a lot of major artists, including of course your contribution to Kanye West and Rihanna. What do you feel like has been your best work thus far, like something you wrote or did for somebody else and you like man I should have kept that for myself or something like your best work that you’ve done for someone else?
Eskeerdo: Realistically, everything is a little piece of me in everything. Even if it’s writing records for girl artists, you know what I’m saying. I don’t know I treat them all like children. I love them all. I can’t really say I wish I did it for me cause the second I feel like it should be for me it’s for me then, you know. I’m a professional at the end of the day. I’m hired to do a job. I go in and do my job and if God blesses me to have that artists’ single and that artist believes in my words then that’s what is you know, but if I ever feel like it’s for me then it’s gon’ be for me then. I ain’t gon’ second guess it. I follow my gut always and the times I haven’t followed my gut I’ve lost so I’ve learned.
RESPECT.: I agree with that. I can definitely agree with that. Do you prefer rap songs or do you prefer like pop hits, like what do you prefer to write?
Eskeerdo: For me or in general?
RESPECT.: In general or for you.
Eskeerdo: For me, like that’s the thing my style is different. I wrote work from home for Fifth Harmony, you know it’s the number one record in the country, but I wouldn’t have never written that for me, you know what I’m saying so it’s just different, like it’s just depending. I become a camilian when I’m writing for other people. I turn into them. Try to see how they think, how they want things to be perceived, you know what I’m saying.
Check out Part 2 for more with Eskeerdo on winning his first Grammy, his transition, upcoming album Cuban Jesus and much more.
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