Yahoo Movies Hannibal Buress on Making Rap Music as Alter Ego Eshu Tune: 'I'm Excited to Keep Progressing'
Steve Garfinkel
Hannibal Buress knows about rap beef — but not the kind that may come to mind when you think of the genre.
The comedian-turned-musician is sitting on the other end of a Zoom call when he recites an entire verse from KRS-One's "Beef," a late '80s ditty informing listeners about the slaughtering of animals. His ability to rap about the meat industry off the top of his head isn't a bit, though. "Beef" is actually one of the first rap songs his older brother put him on as a kid, and it's a reminder that the stand-up great knows his stuff.
"Never stopped eating burgers and whatnot, but respected his position and the information that he gave," Buress jokes with PEOPLE about how the song impacted him.
He might be laughing on the other end of the call, but Buress isn't just rapping for laughs anymore. In March, he rebranded himself with the music alias Eshu Tune and released his first official music on streaming platforms under the moniker. He hasn't abandoned stand-up entirely because, as he explains, someone needs to pay for his 18-month-old baby's Christmas gifts. But right now, Buress has no beef, no qualms. He's focused on music.
"I gotta do work," Buress tells PEOPLE of his budding music career. "It's not a real battle in that way, outside of whatever internal work I have to do to want to drop stuff. It's not like I'm trying to build amusement parks in the middle of Manhattan... It's easy to get caught up in it. But it's creative. And you just do the work."
Shaun Baluyot
As Buress now says, his career has always been music-adjacent. It's provided him with material throughout his 20-year standup run, allowed him to crack a few extra jokes on podcasts and even got him battle rapping during his years at Southern Illinois University. He's also performed with The Roots and notably appeared in Jay-Z's "Moonlight" video.
But when 2020 — and all that came with it — arrived, Buress began to experiment a bit more. The rapper-producer recalls sending a 14-minute freestyle to friends in November of that year before eventually repurposing the track, "Kept About 3," about parenthood to fit into his debut EP, Eshu Tune, back in May.
"There's folks that know me on a casual level through films that may not know the love and the work in the music," Buress says. "So I'll see, 'When he started rapping?' That's funny to see, because they don't know."
"They saw me on something and that's their context for my work," he continues. "They're like, 'That's the guy from that.' So the idea of me rapping is, 'Whoa, what the f---?' So they don't know... But I have a lot of folks seeing the progression, too."
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Performing under his new moniker — as he has throughout the year at an estimated 50 or so non-comedy shows — is a new feeling for Buress. While most fans are familiar with his stunts on The Eric Andre Show, role as Lincoln on Broad City or string of successful stand-up specials and gigs (of which he's only done a handful this year), Buress admits he's in a different element as Eshu Tune.
A lot of that comes from the name itself, which he says stems from Nigerian mythology, as he makes it his mission to primarily wear the corresponding colors of red and black. Unfortunately, someone stole a red shoe from him at a Brooklyn show earlier this year, and he's still not happy about it. But that's a different story.
"It's a little bit of a pressure that comes with the Hannibal name, as a performer. Hannibal has a lot of comedy specials and whatnot and has been doing it since 19," he explains. "To start this era, to start these accounts online from scratch, be able to build them and see them grow... When I'm prepping for a show and I put on something red, I do feel the shift. It's a different state of mind."
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So far, under the name Eshu, Buress has released an eight-song EP and a single titled "Knee Brace." The latter still taps into the rapper's comedic relief, because hitting it "from the back with my knee brace on" surely has some funny elements, but Buress is dead serious on his mission to deliver the best music he can — he even plans to release a remix to his track "Veneers," alongside Paul Wall and Danny Brown.
He might be in good company musically, but Buress isn't putting comedy behind him just yet. He's still got three stand-up dates coming up in Charlotte this weekend, which he laughs are now more-so for monetary purposes at the tail-end of the year. Overall, though, things are moving more toward the music — which inspires his comedy just as much as the other way around.
"It's good to have this shift," Buress shares. "I think it'll make for an interesting comedy show. You know, it does make for a comedy show, because I have been living a different life. And that's what you talk about, your life."
"I'm excited for what the [music] show is gonna be a year from now," Buress adds. "We got some different tools and some new toys that I haven't fully learned yet. But by this time next year, I'll have a full grasp on the musical side of really how to make a dope live experience. I'm excited to keep progressing and keep getting better."
