eMC: Equals Something Squared :: Masta Ace, Punchline, Wordsworth and Stricklin unite for a super lyricists super group

Not too many prominent things come in fours but when they do, greatness is created. Albert Einstein might’ve said that, in fact. Four lines make a square, four squares makes a fun game and four professional MCs make a hell of an album. Wordsworth, Masta Ace, Punchline and Stricklin have formed a super-group under the name eMC and URB went to find out what it stands for.

“There’s really no particular meaning behind it,” says Wordsworth. “We kinda wanted to leave it open so that the fans could have fun with making up their own.” Just like the famous equation, energy is equated by putting these MCs in the same place at the same time. Through guest appearances on albums by Masta Ace and touring, the quad squad got to bond. “We did this song called ‘4 Brothers’ that was supposed to be on my last album but it didn’t make it,” says Ace, a venerable rap vet of nearly 20 years. “That wound up being the first step to us doing this thing”

The Show isn’t just a medley of bars and hooks but a satire of sorts about life on tour. “The whole concept is a day in the life of four MCs on the road and the stuff we have to go through,” says Punchline.

“There are a lot of little dilemmas and things that bother you that go on behind the scenes and no one really thinks about,” added Words.

eMC succeeds because of their we-met-in-high-school-crew chemistry, even as the bond only formed when the four MCs met as much-older adults. By complementing each other’s flow and not just competing to outshine the previous guy, eMC is able to achieve things they haven’t been able to do in their careers. “We all have been solo artists at some point and have developed our own style and way of rhyming, so everybody is very different in what they do and how they do it,” says Ace. “The fans are going to get a chance to enjoy the different mixing and matching of our styles in different order and different voices on different hooks—that’s what makes it a fun album.” And that’s a key point, it’s a fun album. A tradition that got lost between the crack, snap and pop, now punishable to the point of a mere $100 marketing budget. “Now-a-days a lot of artists are soloist and the way the game is going on, nobody seems to want to get along with each other. With all this beef going on it’s good to see a group come together and rock,” says Punchline.

So what’s keeping more solo artists from coming together? As Words puts it, “Some people might get together because they see the money aspect that’s there with it...so the music might suffer. We got together more about having quality music and the money thing is like an aspect but it’s not the primary reason; we wanna make good music.”

Source: Urb