Patie ntly Waiting
A
t first glance, there’s not much of a resemblance between Emerson Taylor and Barack Obama. But this Southern emcee will proudly tell you that he, too, represents change that people can believe in. The change that he speaks of, though, is one that includes his home state of South Carolina getting a bigger piece of the rap pie. He plans to lead the charge to make that happen. Even though he’s been writing rhymes for over a decade, he’s just recently getting a taste of the spotlight, and Mista Taylor plans on taking full advantage of his opportunity to give the world his two cents. And if he has anything to say about it at all, the South shall rise again. “Coming from a city like where I’m from, we don’t get much recognition,” says the gravel-voiced Charleston native, who says he followed the blueprint of groups like UGK and The Geto Boys coming up. “We don’t get a lot of attention. So you gotta put your own stamp on it to solidify yourself as an artist.”
Filled with aggressive street music, Taylor says the mixtape is a platform for him to both vent and escape his reality as well as being an introduction to several other up and coming artists on the MBE roster. And while some artists claim to put passion in their bars, Mista Taylor lets his speak for themselves, all the while truly repping for the hood and his state.
And put his stamp on it he did, releasing his regional hit “Mirror Dance” earlier this year that has had chicks from the Carolinas to Alabama getting loose, bustin’ moves and shaking their tailfeathers to their own reflections. “Ever since the song surfaced, I’ve been eating,” he says. “I wasntt even looking at this as no career before.” With the song serving as an appetizer and generating a strong buzz, the demand has steadily grown for a healthier portion of material which was recently served up in the form of his newly released Loyalty mixtape on Millie Boy Entertainment.
“A lot of rappers say you can feel their pain in their music, but I cry on my tracks,” says Taylor of his sincerity on the mic. “I’m trying to put SC on the map. I try to give the people that’s going through something some music to listen to. As an artist, I feel like I can hold it on my shoulders. I think I can be the Southern version of Jay-Z if I really put my mind to it. That’s not arrogance, that’s confidence.” Words by Anthony Roberts Photo by Carminski Latten
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