Hannibal Buress on his rap alias Eshu Tune: “I needed to focus on music, because that’s what was really true”

19 July, 2023

Hannibal Buress

“Pardon my ignorance but I don’t know the difference between alternative rock and rock,” Hannibal Buress says to the crowd at A2IM’s (The American Association of Independent Music) 2023 Libera Awards. The comedian, actor and rapper is taking on the additional responsibility of host for the evening, cracking jokes from the stage at New York City’s Town Hall. “Is it more of a tone thing? Is rock more like ‘I love rock’n’roll’ and alternative rock is like, ‘I’m about to die’?” Buress adds right before announcing this year’s winner for Best Alternative Rock Record and the audience immediately burst into laughter.

Burress may be hilarious, but his burgeoning rap career under the alias Eshu Tune is no joke. Though most fans know him from his stand-up specials (like the viral 2014 set that reignited sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby) and acting in comedies like Broad City and The Eric Andre Show, Buress was making music before he ever released anything comedically. He’s contributed verses to tracks by Open Mike Eagle, performed and directed videos for Chance The Rapper and appeared in music videos for Jay-Z and Anderson .Paak. Last April, the Chicago-born multi-hyphenate produced and released a self-titled EP made up of eight tracks that blend his penchant for punchlines, deft delivery and lifelong love of hip-hop.

Since then, he’s lasered in on music, performing at SXSW and Pitchfork Music Festival and releasing multiple singles like the melodic ‘Knee Brace’ where he boldly throws the words “bumfuzzled” and “cattywampus” into the same verse and the growling and glitchy, ‘I Lift Weights’ where he pokes fun of machismo over a guitar solo and backing choir.

This September, he’ll be playing a hometown show at Riot Fest, and as he told NME in the green room before performing as Eshu Tune at the awards ceremony, bringing his songs to life onstage has been a rewarding process. “It’s been cool to see how the songs translate live and to see how the band interprets them,” he says. “A lot of those songs were made when I wasn’t out gigging, and I was in the studio, so the live set is getting better too.”

Following the recent release of a surprise diss track called ‘Lamp Me’, Buress is focused on creating new visuals, making new music and dropping a debut album later this year. His moniker Eshu is derived from a benevolent trickster god in Nigerian mythology and the actor turned MC is tapping into that same energy to bring his formidable and amusing music career to life on tour. “A lot of the songs I’m making now are geared towards performance,” he says. “It’s just constant growth.”

NME: You’ve said you’ve been making songs before you made anything else. Is it frustrating that people think you’re just now picking up music?

“That just is what it is. I can only tell the story so many times and I just gotta make music, you know what I mean? It was either my senior year of high school or my first year of college when I recorded some songs with my friend Dave and I freestyled and everything before that. It’s always been part of my life.”

Last month you dropped a surprise track called ‘Lamp Me’ where you rap in a British accent. What was the inspiration behind that?

“There was a tweet that said, ‘Americans say let me put you on to UK rap and it’s just Little Simz, Central Cee and Dave’, and people were replying with ‘Americans don’t listen to UK rap, nobody says that’. And I had this track, ‘Cheers’ that was making fun of someone that raps in a British accent sometimes. I shot a whole video for it in London but didn’t connect with it. So, I quote-tweeted the rap tweet with the video for ‘Cheers’ and it started really moving around and doing better than the music I actually promoted, but that’s the game. Then somebody from the UK replied, ‘I’m gonna lamp you for that’ and I was like, ‘What is lamp me?’ I knew it didn’t mean anything good, but I played along and asked, ‘Does that mean shining a light on the music?’ So, I thought it was cute that this person said that and I decided to make a diss song with a bunch of English lingo. We found a drill beat, edited the video and turned the whole thing around in 12 hours. I think going forward I’ll do a balance of that, really working on music but also having an idea and getting it out quickly and just trusting myself.”

You’re producing, performing, doing stand-up and touring all at the same time. How are you balancing all of these creative pursuits at once and do you find it difficult?

“I’m not really acting as much right now. Last year I did What We Do In The Shadows and I did a voice on [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem]. So the acting isn’t taking up as much time as it used to when I was going from TV to movies or doing back-to-back movies. Mostly it’s music and stand-up, so now it’s finding the balance between touring and recording. I just don’t record well when I’m touring. I’m trying to find that workflow between touring and writing and doing stand-up then getting back into music mode. The shows I’ve been doing recently have been a good combination of both. I start right at eight o’clock, do an hour of stand up then I come back in Eshu Tune mode and do about an hour of music. That’s been dope.”

What pushed you to focus on music right now instead of having it in the background?

“Once the pandemic hit I asked myself what I really wanted to do. There was limited business happening and there wasn’t somebody offering a big amount of money for me to do something so that wasn’t influencing what I chose to pursue creatively. On the film side, I’d have to take six COVID tests a day just to film and that sounded terrible. Comedy clubs were weird [at the time] so I wasn’t excited about doing stand-up but I enjoyed being in the studio and recording without any real end result in mind. I was just making songs to make songs because I was enjoying that. I wasn’t chasing voice-over work, I wasn’t doing stand-up and I wasn’t trying to be in a commercial about a phone or a credit card. I was just doing music and there was no money in it. That’s what indicated that I needed to focus on music because that’s what was really true.”

Hannibal Buress
Hannibal Buress CREDIT: Steve Garfinkel

How have your performances evolved since you released your music last April?

“It’s been fun to get better as a performer. Even after rehearsing I would blank out on lyrics or run out of breath on the second verse of [‘But I Was At The Airport’], and I was like ‘I’ve heard this song a bunch of times, why don’t I know it?’ There’s just something to rewiring the brain to learn a bunch of lyrics and be able to emote and deliver with passion. It’s been cool to figure out the show and what rocks and how to operate with a band on stage. When I go out in the fall we’ll have the show tightened up and lighting and more visuals in tune with the music. There’s a lot we can do in a live music setting that I’m excited about. The new songs are getting better and sound more confident, everything keeps improving. I don’t think my audience knows the whole record, ‘Veeners’ they know, and maybe ‘Knee Brace’ but with the other tracks there’s still space to do visuals for everything and give them a proper promo. That’s the next step, making sure we elevate the records as best we can.”

What plans do you have next for releasing new music and touring?

“I don’t know if my full length will be done, but at the very minimum, I’m gonna put out a four-pack or five-pack or something like that before Riot Fest. I have that festival, and we’re going to tour around that in the Midwest so Detroit, Indiana, Wisconsin in September. I want to get new music out before then and have at least a handful of songs with visuals. If the work flows well, we’ll have the full length ready but at the minimum I want to have some fresh songs to tour.”

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