Hip-Hop Book Club’s Attah “A.T.” Essien
June 25 I attended the third season debut of the “Hip-Hop Book Club” hosted by four buddies from Dallas Attah “A.T.” Essien, Sobechi Ibekwe, Terrance Lee and Kenny Reeves.
Started in 2017, the Hip-Hop Book Club is a public forum for lovers of hip-hop as they discuss artists, their most acclaimed work and their influence on the culture.
The group started the book club at Dallas’ Josey Records. The book club has since then moved to The House of Blues and was even featured in The Source.
The four hosts discussed Jay-Z’s 2001 album “The Blueprint.”
Prior to attending the event, I spoke with Essien. We talked about the inception of the Hip-Hop Book Club, how he became a promoter, considering himself an unofficial ambassador of Dallas, Megan Thee Stallion and more.
MM: How did you get into the promotion business?
AE: Like senior year of high school… it was on some small-time, me and a group of friends just trying to throw a party together. It was just something cool that I enjoyed. It didn’t really get serious until my sophomore year of college which was 2005. It was a friend of mine who kinda started this little group. It was a high school quote-on-quote Spirit group or whatever. It was like our black answer to all the other spirit groups in high school. Me and my friend who has started that, he went off to school at TSU in Houston. He was like aye, you know the group we started in high school? I’m a just reprise that and do it out here in Houston and you do it in Denton. We should do it together and you hit up all the Dallas or the Denton spots because I was at UNT at the time. We kind of got it off the ground doing it that way and it just kind of took off.
MM: You’ve stuck with it since then. So was it always just parties? What else have you ventured into since then?
AE: It’s just mostly club events. Overall I try to keep everything that I do for the most part social because I’m a social guy. I enjoy going to events, I enjoy going to parties and I enjoy going to clubs and happy hours and networking and kick-back events.
MM: I gotta say I was impressed. I haven’t been to “Wings Day” yet. I see you mention it every week (on Twitter). I went to the “Silent Trap Party.” That was dope. I remember seeing you there and I was like that’s the cat from Twitter! [laughs]
AE: [Laughs] Yeah that party was lit. Yeah bro believe me it’s kinda… it’s not weird. It’s actually kind of dope going places and people being like oh yeah you’re the dude on Twitter! Or oh yeah, you’re the dude who does this. First I’m like OK… But then I’m like oh shit people actually recognize me.
MM: Who inspired you to get into this [business]? Anybody you looked up to like… I know Puff came up in college throwing parties. Anybody like that?
AE: Man, all my quote-on-quote mentors or people I look up to all kind of grew in time. So at first I looked up to this dude named J Roc. J Roc was like the ultimate promoter in Dallas. He was the dude that was doing it all. He actually got my mind set on the idea of I’ve been suited for this since day one. He use to be the promoter at Club Blue and Club Cirque back in the day. That was like the No.1 spot in Dallas for like all young, 21-and-up folks. That was like the No.1 cultural spot in Dallas. One day I was riding around in the car with him and I was like bro, don’t you got an event tonight? What you doing? He was like man, I’m good, bro. I’m finna go ahead and chill at the crib, go to sleep and I’ll come back in the morning and pick up my money. I was like oh that’s dope! He don’t even have to be there. He just picks up a bag of money. I was like that’s what I want to do. So J Roc was my No.1 mentor. He was the guy I looked up to. And then I started researching other folks who were in the game. People like Marc Barnes out of D.C. Kenny Burns. Of course Puff, he did his thing back in the day. It’s a few cats but I think my favorite one is Kenny Burns just because he kind of went from being a guy who’s just throwing dope parties to turning himself into a lifestyle brand. Being a guy with his hands in everything.
MM: You seem to be all about Dallas. Where did that come from? You always wanted to stay in the city?
AE: I mean, I was born and raised in Dallas. I think I grew up… [actually] I don’t think this, I knew this. I grew up with this idea that with anything that’s connected to me, I want that thing to be the best. So if I’m born in Dallas, I want anything that has to do with Dallas to be the best. If I’m black, I want everything that’s black to win. You know what I’m saying? If I’m Christian, I want anything that’s Christian to be recognized and noticed or uplifted.
It just started as a kid. One of my first memories was — I still remember this till this day — I was watching TV and something had just went off and another show was starting. I didn’t get a chance to change the channel fast enough but the show was like hey, we’re coming to you live from the country music capital of the world. And I was wanting them to say Dallas! Dallas! Dallas! And they said Nashville, Tennessee. I was extremely disappointed. Damn, why didn’t they say Dallas? I just wanted Dallas to be it. I don’t care that it’s country music. I don’t even listen to country music. I just wanted Dallas to be recognized. Of course as I got older, you start to recognize that Dallas is one of those cities that outside of the Cowboys, it’s not a place that people are just really talking about. So me living here, I see stuff here almost all the time that I’m excited about that I love. Like why can’t people see this? So I always try to post things or talk about things so that people can see it through my eyes.
MM: There seems to be more recognition lately around Dallas. You got Yella Beezy, obviously. Errol Spence jr. Bobby Sessions. You had Tony Mack doing the boxing thing locally before Maurice Hooker came up. Do you think more people are paying attention to Dallas now?
AE: I definitely think they pay more attention now. I think what you’re starting to see is the beginning of a infrastructure. In order to have a solid infrastructure, you need people who are those beacons. People who are recognizable just beyond where you’re from. These people have put in the hard work and dedication to get themselves beyond just Dallas. Which, I don’t want to say it in a sense of you need to leave Dallas but anything that you do, if you’re good at it you’re going to get nationwide recognition for it.
People like Mo Hooker, people like Errol Spence, people like Yella Beezy and Bobby Sessions. These guys are doing things to where people elsewhere are like yo, these guys are actually good. Where are they from? And so now when they ask where are they from, they say Dallas. And now people look a little bit more to see what else is out here. To me, that’s the beginning of starting an infrastructure and now with all the other things that are going on behind the scenes, those people are going to get through as well. It’s going to open a lot of doors for us.
MM: I saw you mentioned Megan thee Stallion performed at your event. Do I have that right?
AE: She performed at two of my events. She performed and came out to two of my events last year. Like right at the cusp of her just like really starting to get hot.
MM: What was she like? Did you see her and think she’s going to be special?
AE: I gotta say when she came out, she already had a solid fan base. I didn’t bring her out like she was nobody. I can’t say that. What caught me was a friend of mine was kind of her creative director doing one of her photo shoots when she came out to Dallas. So we made that connection. When I saw her post videos of it on her Instagram, I was like “Yo! What’s this song right here?” The song was actually “Big Ol’ Freak.” So that sample just caught me like Yo that’s fire! That shit really catches you. And I’m not trying to be sexist when I say this but it’s almost something like you hear a dude get on. And I still jam it with Megan on it singing all the words. I don’t care. Fuck it. The beat rides so hard. It’s like something you can imagine yourself vibin’ to in the ‘lac or your slab or whatever the case may be. Hearing that I asked who was this girl? She told me who she was and she’s rapping out of Houston. It kind of clicked because I remember seeing the original Houston cypher which she first got some quote-on-quote recognition outside of just Houston. So my home girl [booked her] for Wednesday Wingsday and then I had a Saturday event at the time and my home girl said we’re gonna bring her to the Saturday event too. It ended up happening. She came out and we had a good amount of people come out to support. But I don’t think people really were understanding who Megan Thee Stallion truly was like they do right now. Like if I brought Megan Thee Stallion out right now, it would be pandemonium.
MM: The Wingsday thing, how did that come about? That seems to have a big following.
AE: So it actually all started back in 2011. A friend of mine, my boy Victor he’s the guy I was started doing promotions with back in high school. Victor lived in Houston, he went to TSU. He took a spot out there that was called “Scott’s.” That’s actually the original Prospect Park. They use to do a Wednesday event called “Wing night.” 50 cent wings all night and whatever drink specials they had. They had DJ Mr. Rogers there who’s like a top DJ from in Texas. I went out there one night and I loved it. I enjoyed it. I’m always hearing about it and I’m like we need a Wednesday type spot out here in Dallas. We don’t have that mid-week spot that people can just come out to and enjoy themselves.
There was a spot that was being built up in Dallas called “Draft Picks” at the time. I went to holla at the people at Draft Picks and was like look, we need to do this Wednesday event. 50 cent wings. They agreed. They let us do it. And we had a hit on our hands. Me and the promoters that I was doing it with, we had a huge hit on our hands on Wednesdays. Some things happened in between there and then eventually the spot Draft Picks ended up closing. So when it closed, it left a void. A lot of people would hit me up. A lot of my friends were like you need to bring it back, bro. That was the spot. The wings is good. People are having a good time.
As far as finding a spot that embodied what this event entails… like you have to have a spot that, it doesn’t have to be the most glamorous spot but it has to be a spot that people are comfortable in. It was to be a spot with some decent drink specials. I wanted a spot that had some type of patio or outdoor element. All these things have to come together and have a decent location. And so I ended up coming upon “Gators.” I went to talk to the manager there and I showed him pictures of what I use to do at Draft Picks. And the minute he saw the pictures, he said OK bet. When do you wanna start? So we started May 20, 2015 and been going strong ever since.
MM: I see you got this Hip-Hop Book Club which seems like such a dope concept. Where did that idea come from?
AE: So it’s not a book club in the literal sense. I say this all the time. I’m basically going through my spill right now. What we do is break down hip-hop albums the same way you would break down a book in a book club. What we do is break them down into what’s called the four pillars. The four pillars are visual, influence, production and lyrics. What we do is sit down and discuss and and ask questions based on these pillars. And we talk amongst each other and the audience as well. It becomes an open forum. Anybody can talk and discuss whether they appreciate it or whether they hate a certain project by a certain artist.
And that came about in a [group chat] started by my partners in a group called “Good Culture.” Good Culture is a lifestyle brand that is about promoting good culture within the city of Dallas whether it’s events, whether it’s things going on in the community. So we’re affiliates with Good Culture. We hang out with them. Those are our partners from back in college. Anyway, [my friend]mentioned that he was going to do a run through of I think Kanye’s discography. This is 2017 if I’m not mistaken. This is before Kanye really started flipping out. My friend Kenny was like oh thank you for saying that. This is typically around the time I do a run down of Jay-Z’s discography. And so I said how about we make this a family thing and we all just kick it at the crib and we run through the whole discography together? And then Kenny said how about we just make this an event? And then I said ya’ll thinking what I’m thinking? And then it just shot up from there.
We’ve done shows in D.C., we’ve done a show at NYU, Oklahoma, in Houston and we’re expanding to do a few more shows on the east coast as well.
