AN EMPIRE OF ONE

From Issue #5 of Foundation Magazine

WORDS: Brett Yates

At its best, the mixtape scene is the vanguard of the rap industry. Here, fresh talent is discovered; an unknown finds fame; we hear the raw skills of the genre’s most celebrated stars without the obscurant polish applied by labels for major releases; and young DJs propelled only by their love for hip-hop become major players in the music industry.

At the same time, however, the mixtape scene can seem also like the rap industry’s shady cousin. Basement dwellers cull old tracks from other mixtapes and the Internet, use their PCs to burn them onto CDs, and sell them; part-time DJs scrounge for discarded, lo-fi freestyles, album cuts, and remixes, record their friends rapping over stolen beats, and pad it all out with shoutouts, tags, and promotional skits. Evil Empire’s mixtapes stand in stark contrast to these amateur products. The Be South and Interstate Trafficking releases, for example, boast high-quality, entertaining, often exclusive music, carefully selected and ordered to achieve a cumulative effect, by important and dynamic artists. While many mixtapes seem to be nothing more than hyped-up advertisements, the musical equivalents of junk mail, Evil Empire’s mixtapes sound like albums, substantive and satisfying, but with greater freshness and variety. It was my assumption that behind the creation of such a professional line of mixtapes must stand a fairly large organization, an array of DJs and promoters.

Calling the company for an interview, I hope to find an employee with adequate knowledge to answer my questions and tell me enough about Evil Empire to write a piece about them.

Instead, the person who picks up the phone tells me, “I am Evil Empire.”
Puzzled, I pause for a moment. All the empires I’ve heard of consisted of more than one guy, and it’s hard to imagine one man able to justify appropriating a nickname used for such former powers as the Soviet Union and the New York Yankees. But the individual at the other end of the line introduces himself more thoroughly: He’s known as E.R., sometimes called William E. Holla, and now he bills himself as Evil Empire. He’s based in New York but spends time in Miami as well. The mixtapes are his. He’s a DJ; he’s a promoter; he’s the boss.

I reflect upon the amount of work he must have undertaken to construct such an operation by himself, and I’m intrigued. I ask him about his beginnings in the business.

“I started doing distribution. I started at the age of fifteen, distributing vinyl,” he says. “Then I got a job doing street team promotions. I learned from that how to distribute and market — the little ins and outs of the game.” When he founded Evil Empire, it “used to be a group of us, about three of us,” but his partner “couldn’t hold his own weight,” and the outfit dwindled. Soon E.R. was the only Evil Empire representative left.

But flying solo seems to suit him. When he talks about the record industry, he displays an acutely maverick mentality: “Record labels come to us. They want us to do a mixtape because their album is about to drop. They want to see what kind of response their songs get from an audience. Record labels give us their music, but they’re not doing anything for us.” We discuss the RIAA’s raids of the Aphilliates’ offices that occurred early in 2007. “I don’t really deal with record labels,” Evil Empire concludes.

He even seems, to an extent, to distrust and stand apart from the trends that become, briefly, the impetuses of so many mixtape DJs before they jump onto new bandwagons. In the past year or so, for instance, Lil Wayne has flooded the mixtape market, and Evil Empire admits that “Lil Wayne is the hottest artist in the game. I worked with his DJ Raj Smoov. They helped me out; I helped them out.” Still, he likes to put only “one or two” songs by Lil Wayne on a typical mixtape. He mentions that, before Weezy, 50 Cent was the rapper every DJ wanted to feature. But “I did a 50 Cent mixtape recently. It didn’t do so well,” he explains. “Who knows who’s going to be hot next?”

Evil Empire focuses on quality more than on the latest fads. The quality of his mixtapes sets them apart from the rest. “I take my time,” he says. “I’m not on the Internet downloading songs and throwing them on a disc.” He hopes that listeners will not find “one bad track” on his mixtapes. “The whole CD sounds good. I want you to be able to put the CD in your player and listen from track one to the end.”

Despite his independent mindset, E.R. has worked with many of the industry’s biggest names, including DJ Drama, whom he holds in high regard: “He takes time out to call me. It’s an honor. . . . I’m not where he is right now.”

Not yet, but he’s on his way. His mixtapes are, more and more, a premium source for exclusive music. (When I ask how he gets so many never-before-heard tracks from A-list emcees, he replies, “I can’t give that up. If I tell you how I get the exclusives, I won’t get them anymore.”) He has many projects in progress, including a solo album. “I got a mixtape coming up with Trae,” he adds. “I’m doing something with Gorilla Zoe.” French Montana and he “will be dropping a mixtape called The French Revolution, hosted by Chris Tucker,” and a related DVD will follow. He’s also collaborating with Cocaine City Records and “working on an Evil Empire DVD,” which will likely include “interviews with artists, music videos, and raw footage.”

When he reaches the top, however, he says he’ll still extend a helping hand to DJs in need. “I’m always trying to help my peers,” he tells me. “I’m not like these other DJs. They don’t want to help anybody. There was a time when I needed help, and nobody wanted to help. . . . The mixtape game is real grimy.”

He notes that imitators have of late been using the name Evil Empire. I imagine he has little desire to grant them the kind of assistance he promises to other DJs. “There’s only one Evil Empire,” he assures me. That’s the truth. The one-man empire is one of a kind.

4 Comments to “Evil Empire”

1. DJ Diamond Dog — Thursday May 29, 2008 @ 7:12 am
   

   Props out to E.R. for staying grounded while grinding hard. It’s definitely not an easy thing to put together a QUALITY mixtape that is appealing to all from start to finish. It’s good to hear his refreshing point of view that a mixtape is so much more than just downloaded music burned onto a cd. AND…he’s still willing to help out the younger, up-and-coming DJ’s. That’s loyalty to the game right thurr.

2. empirekilla — Sunday June 1, 2008 @ 11:25 am
   

   evil empire is NOT A DJ!!!!!!!!!!!hes a fat white man named Fatt matt…not the person in the pic at the top of the page..they pay for stolen tracks from artist engineers and call it a mix cd…damn… foundation should really do another interview with empire and ask him how much he paid for them wayne tracks…oh yeah and it would be cool if you posted the beginning of the wayne interview where he disses evil empire..thats responsible journalism..not just posting half an interview..if your really serious about representing the magazine and the mixcd culture, you would realize that evil empire dosent mix,scratch or even claim to be a dj. He just a fat white dude with a marketing plan ruining the mixtape culture with his website and bullshit stolen tracks!!!!

3. unknown — Sunday June 1, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
   

   Thats EVIL EMPIRE….the fat white kid is THE EMPIRE. There’s a difference!!!!! Get your shit straight!!

4. ezoh mljfd — Sunday August 24, 2008 @ 5:16 am
   

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