There’s a Method to the Madness of E-Stro

Los Angeles artist E-Stro brings a Daniel Day-Lewis sensibility to songwriting, believing one should immerse themselves in something to optimally convey it. Some of the greatest performative art we’ve seen has occurred on disaster or even death’s door, as we famously saw with Heath Ledger’s incarnation of the Joker. I was a big fan of his “Hate 2 Love U” project by way of its storytelling prowess, depth of perspective, and cinematic feel. Continuing with an approach akin to film, E-Stro is poised to drop a sequel to the project called “Silhouette” (featuring Baby Goth) that drops at the end of the month, all the while peppering his following with brand new heaters (“Shut It Out“, “Torn”, “Caught in the Act”) along the way. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with E-Stro to revisit “Hate 2 Love U” while gearing up for what’s to come:

The last time we spoke (a year and a half ago), I asked you where you’d be in five years; you said:

Hopefully, I will be in a position to travel the world and engage with my fans to give back to them for the support that they have given to me. Hopefully, I will have gained the attention of record labels and podcasters and developed a solid core fanbase.

Have the goals changed? If so, how? If not, how we looking?

Yeah, they have changed significantly. As I have grown as an entertainer, my goals have now shifted to making the content that people resonate with most. This world is full of people who are scared to show emotion or too prideful to become vulnerable. As artists, it’s our job to show them they aren’t alone. It’s our job to say the things that most of the population is scared to say.

How have you evolved as an artist since we last spoke?

I have changed very much as an artist since we spoke. I think the thing that has changed the most is my own personal motivation behind making this music. I used to try to make what I “thought” people wanted to hear. Now, I make music about my own personal struggles and demons that I deal with on a daily basis. Since I made the switch, people started fuckin wit me heavier than ever before.

To continue with the idea of vulnerability and shared demons being something that resonates with people, you recently referenced the mode you put yourself in to make “Hate 2 Love U” akin to method acting. Can you elaborate on that for the people?

Yeah, as an artist who creates music about real struggles and scenarios within my life, I don’t really make music about things I don’t personally feel. So I kind of inadvertently adopted method acting into my process, literally becoming the person I am conveying in whatever I’m doing, for example, when I did the “Hate 2 Love U” project with Liza, I had to actually convince myself we were soulmates. I did little things like change my background screen to me and her, carry around a Polaroid of us in my wallet at all times, and stack “content that couples would make” every time I was with her. Those are just a few examples of the type of things I did in my own head until I fully fell for her. By the way (lol), I don’t recommend doing this to anyone as it can take quite a toll on your brain and heart.

This album also focuses on toxic relationships. What defines a toxic relationship to you? Not just in terms of romantic relationships, but friendships, business relationships, etc…

I think that there is no clear definitive definition when you are speaking of toxicity, but in my opinion, I see it mostly as two people who are blinded by the relationship so deeply that they continue to collapse the relationship itself or hurt each other time and time again with no rational perspective about their own actions.

Well said. Something I find dope about this album is the duality of perspectives. You bring the female point of view through Liza. Tell me about who she is personally and as an artist and how this all came together and adds to the project itself.

She’s awesome! She is the prettiest, smartest, most dedicated female artist I’ve ever worked with. She is so incredibly talented and I can’t thank her enough for doing this with me. She put up with me and my shit tons of times and really let me dive into this role completely. We co-wrote this whole album and had to first write the story we were going to convey with this album and the roles we would both play, then began the writing process. Took us almost a year of locking ourselves into The Altar Studios in LA to get it the way we wanted. I don’t know if we could even do that again.

I have to appreciate the irony of this project being made at a studio called “The Altar”, but I digress hahah. Back to the method acting, elaborate upon the TV show and faux relationship situation:

I can’t elaborate too much on this one just yet as I signed an NDA restricting me from leaking too much information about the show, but I did go on a reality tv show with Liza during the duration of creating this project. It didn’t end the greatest but as I said before, all good things come to an end. it will be premiering on MTV, vh1, and Paramount+

Darth Fader is a fire name for a producer haha. Which DAW serves as his red lightsaber? Please take this time to speak on any other collaborators on the project who made it what it is as well:

Yeah, Darth Fader is an awesome producer name lol, and he is so talented himself as well, and his red lightsaber DAW was definitely Pro Tools; this was definitely due to the fact that most of the guitar on the project was played by him live and the entire “Hate 2 Love U” project was recorded and mixed by him as well. He definitely put in the post-work on this project. Anything that wasn’t him was done by Tesla Beats, whose primary DAW is FL Studio.

What do you want to stay with people after immersing themselves in this project?

You aren’t alone. tons of people feel this way and hopefully, Liza, Darth Fader, Tesla Beats, and myself were able to create something you relate to and enjoy.

Tell the people anything else you want them to know:

Stay tuned…I have a solo project about the repercussions of this project coming out next.

Make sure you follow the homie E-Stro across socials and keep up because the boy is about to go on a run, run.

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Tags: E-Stro, Hate 2 Love U, Hype Magazine, Interview, Liza, MC Bravado

About the Author

MC Bravado MC Bravado is an emcee/educator from Baltimore by way of New York. He's received noteworthy press across mediums, including but not limited to Billboard, Rolling Stone, HipHopDX, CBS, FOX, ABC, SiriusXM Shade45, Okayplayer, DJBooth, HotNewHipHop, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine, Earmilk, and REVOLT TV. Performing alongside or collaborating with the likes of Bone Thugs, Scarface, Joell Ortiz, Statik Selektah, & MANY more, Bravado is a veteran presence.  No stranger to big stages (Warped Tour, A3C, SXSW), MC B is showing & proving his way to rarefied air. That being said, the former Baltimore city high school English teacher still keeps a leg in the classroom as program coordinator for nonprofit Music Education program Beats Not Bullets. He also co-owns Label Necklace, an independent record label that empowers & educates other creatives while running the label’s boutique PR branch.