By: Fredwill Hernandez
There was a “buzz” in Los Angeles, evident by the all those who turned out for Osmar Escobar‘s EP release and listening party for La Cultura, held on Fri. – July 29th at the Gibson Showroom, Beverly Hills, Ca.
“Everything started when I was a little kid, I had a cousin back in Colombia who used to be a rapper and by seeing him around rapping and stuff like that, I started falling in love with the music at a very young age, and other than that my mom was a real good friend of El Maestro Jairo Varela [co-founder] of El Grupo Niche, so I would go every weekend to go see them record because I lived like two blocks from where the studio was, so I used to see them record all the time,” explained Escobar, the singer/songwriter [and rapper] who hails from Cali, Colombia, and who recently was released from a lengthy [unfair] artist contract he felt was holding his progress up. “It’s been a long time, I’ve been doing this my whole life, this is my second EP that I’m dropping today, it’s called La Cultura. I’m really excited about this one because it’s allowing me to really be who I am. I don’t know if you know but I was [locked] under a contract for a lot of years, so now that I have the freedom to do what I want, it’s really when I can put my heart in it — so that’s why everything that is happening [around me] is positive.”
The seven song EP distributed by Empire [Distribution], has three [collaboration] features, on “Backseat” featuring Dominican female rapper MelyMel“, Angélica Rahe on “Mías”, and [Top of the Food Chain’s] Tony Valenzuela known artistically as Hi-Tone, on “2 Lanes.”
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Hi-Tone, and Escobar, coincidently also joined Self Provoked, and EMC, all who took part in King Lil G‘s highly successful [26 city] ‘Paint the City Blue Tour‘.
As to how Escobar met Lil G, the artist’s adds, “I did a song on my last EP [La Tribu], called Cali[fornication] featuring King Lil G. Me and Lil G have known each other for years. I used to go to North Hollywood and hangout at a [recording] studio he worked out of, we would cross paths and one day he asked me to play him some of my stuff, so I played him some of my music, he liked it, we’ve been on one accord ever since, so eventually he asked me to come on tour with him, and I was blessed to join him on eight of those stops.”
Among those spotted making their rounds at the event included concert promoter/artist manager Marvelous, Mega 96.3 FM’s DJ Irony, Top Stop recording artist’s X2, and MVMVT Productions’ [producer/director] Dinu Kane, who is currently working on a documentary of Reggaeton/Latin Urban music titled Mirame, which will [coincidently also] features Escobar.
“We’re working on my first US Tour [hopefully by the end of August or first week of September] which will have 28 dates, which MelyMel will also be part of, and I also have a nomination for Best New Artist in the Latino Show Awards in Colombia [which will take place in October], and we have another EP with five songs [hopefully] coming out by the end of the year, in what I consider a little bit more [dance and] commercial and different than what’s on this current EP,” added Escobar.
