E.S.G. is one of the original members of the Screwed Up Click, the Houston camp DJ Screw built. He came through Fort Worth for a show and sat down with XMG Hip Hop for an exclusive interview nobody else has.
Bringing “Swangin and Bangin” to Screw
E.S.G. says people have the story twisted. The record was not something that got made at the Screw house. He wrote it and recorded it first, then brought it to DJ Screw already finished.
He points back to an old DVD where Screw’s girl Nikki talks about Screw’s reaction the first time he heard it. Put it in context: at that point nobody outside of Texas had really heard Screw yet.
What the Screw House Actually Was
“It was more like a brotherhood,” he says. He compares the house to a gym. People came through, got on the mic, and worked out on the flow, and you might be in there for hours doing it.
He also draws a line most people miss. Plenty of guys were doing flows. Fewer were making real albums with real structure, and he says that was the difference in how he approached it from the jump.
The Vision
The plan was bigger than mixtapes. Screw at the head of the table, everybody under one umbrella no matter what label deals people had going on the side. Once the growth started showing up, the idea was to build a real structure around it and run it themselves.
The Losses
Then the conversation turns. He says SUC could have stood for Screwed Up Cursed, because of how many people they buried. The love was there, the money came, the blessings came, and they still lost more people than anybody should have to.
Why He Still Freestyles Off the Dome
This is the best part of the interview. He says when he plays a room full of young people who do not know the history, he comes out and freestyles for real. Off the dome. Talking about the girl in the front row, her tattoos, what somebody has on. By the time he is done they are fans.
He credits Instagram for letting people see that, and says no matter what is going on in the music, the real is going to prevail.
Watch the full interview above.