Northeast Brooklyn With Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire

We take a look at some of the new stars of Crown Heights, Canarsie, and Brownsville’s emerging rap scenes.
A group photo of rappers from Northeast Brooklyn
Clockwise from top left: Red Note, Rob Locke, Bammo Gzz, Mr Muthafuckin’ eXquire, Shaqqy, Chip Skylark, Conscious, Grim Genesis, Yo Chill, Sco, Fleesko Mack, Frenchy Finesse, Monkey Rad 7 Simsbentley, Frui. Photo by James Stone.

For Brooklyn rappers there is still no feeling like hearing Funk Flex drop bombs on your song as it plays on Hot 97. To the outside world, terrestrial radio may seem ancient and irrelevant, but in Brooklyn if you want to blow up it remains an important rite of passage. The problem is that New York’s powerful radio personalities and programmers aren’t reacting to the street-level artists who are capturing the sound of the city these days, instead they’re chasing artists with the most WorldStarHipHop or SoundCloud plays. This gatekeeping makes it difficult for impactful movements within the city—like Brooklyn’s drill scene—to forge ahead.

The gatekeepers ignore the Brooklyn scene despite the success of a breakout artist like Tekashi 6ix9ine, who has been influenced by the quietly thriving rap movement, but who is too polarizing a figure to carry the borough on his back. Regardless, the scene has flourished because of the diversity that exists in their drill music, an aggressive style of rap popularized first in Chicago and then London. One of the most notable drill-inflected rappers is Brownsville’s Envy Caine. Caine has gotten hot in the city with a flow akin to early Fabolous. The charismatic Sheff G incorporates a style much more indebted to the UK’s drill movement than Chicago’s. The UK drill influence is not only apparent in his sound but also his associations—like having a video uploaded to UK drill channel Pressplay Media. PNV Jay is a lighter alternative to the aforementioned rappers with an accessible Atlanta touch—focused on delivering memorable and catchy lines—to his drill music. But as different as the three are, they all possess the same no-nonsense, cocky Brooklyn swag paired with the deep arsenal of bars that, historically, a rapper needs to really rep the borough.

When a scene is as splintered as Brooklyn’s is, finding an informed but neutral guide to its many characters. It’s why the charismatic—and beef agnostic—Crown Heights-bred rapper Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire is the perfect guide to the Northeast Brooklyn rap scene. eXquire has been immersed in Brooklyn hip-hop all of his life, growing up in Crown Heights’ Kingsborough Houses. He has seen waves ebb and flow, and rappers like Biggie, JAY-Z, and Fabolous go from local legends to worldwide phenoms. eXquire has even gotten the opportunity to bring his own flavor to the scene, helping to usher in a more abstract style to Brooklyn in the early 2010s. That style would open up a lane for hip-hop that embraces the street rap that has always thrived in Brooklyn but captures the essence of an everyday Brooklyn kid. From the lineage of his style come the deep-benched ECW! collective. This enigmatic crew based in Crown Heights have built a loyal local following because of their eclectic sound that has a place in both the current direction of Brooklyn and the internet.

The ECW! Headquarters is where I met up with eXquire, who has become something of a mentor to the crew. I hopped off the Utica Avenue-bound 4 train onto the wide and busy thoroughfare that is Eastern Parkway. At the end of the long street I walked up to a worn white door and when I knocked eXquire let me into the dimly lit multi-family home that doubles as a rapper crash pad. In the basement sat members of ECW! laid out in the spacious smoke-filled room enjoying music that they hope will set Brooklyn on fire in the near future. eX and I went to the first floor and sat on the sunken seats of a well-used burgundy couch surrounded by bare white walls and thick blinds covering the windows. All smiles and snickers, eX was more than excited to talk about why the Brooklyn rap scene that he has loved since he was a kid is in the midst of a renaissance.

Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire. Photo by James Stone.

JAMES STONE

eXquire: The earliest I can remember fucking with rap is Biggie. He was so relatable. He was the perfect mixture of Brooklyn: He was Jamaican, so Jamaican people loved him, and so did Americans. Biggie was the perfect rapper. He represented everything accurately about Brooklyn. Every facet of New York culture, both the street level and the hip-hop level. And the Jamaican shit was important because Brooklyn has always been inspired by reggae—look at Foxy [Brown]. Then JAY-Z came and he was the first person to bring the hustler’s view point to the game. He was a real big-time drug dealer—allegedly—that was also a rapper. JAY-Z brought that to it, and professionalism.

My first real rap moment though, was [seeing] Fabolous, because, like him, I’m from the projects. Fabolous was from [the nearby] Brevoort [Houses], so homie was literally right there, that close. Imagine you’re in the hood and some dude you see every day is on the radio. It was a big moment, because then rap seemed attainable for me.

When I was first getting into rap, there were only street rappers. It was really hard at that time, because I wasn’t doing street rap, and niggas wasn’t trying to hear you if you weren’t. Shit changed when the hipsters came to Brooklyn. It helped me a lot because it opened the doors for a different type of rap. It came during a time where street rap was it. I mean street rap is still it, but it let other shit in. You could put your abstract ideas into rap, and the hipsters were cool with it. Before it was like motherfuckers on the street handing out CDs. Then the internet came and it showed everyone a different side of Brooklyn.

When it comes to Brooklyn rap everyone has their own interpretation. People like to categorize New York rap, and say this is the classic New York style or Brooklyn sound. But that’s not a real thing. They will say ’91-99, that’s what New York rap sounds like. It doesn’t make sense. If you look at most of these young niggas rapping now, none of them are rapping in the “classic New York style.”

PNV Jay

PNV Jay. Photo by Jimmy Fontaine.

Brooklyn rap is raw and real. That’s what brought me to young rappers like PNV Jay, he’s got that JAY-Z swag. Like JAY-Z is JAY-Z and there’s only one, but I like his [PNV Jay] swag. He’s young, but you can tell he’s mature and sees the bigger picture. You can hear it in his music. And he always keeps himself clean and neat, keeps his hair cut. That counts for something. He’s a professional, a lot of niggas don’t have it but he does. He dances sometimes too, but the dance I fuck with hard is the “Lbop.” It’s by this nigga named Scrappy Doo, it’s just rubbing his chest and stuff, but it’s too wavy.

Envy Caine

My favorite rapper though is Envy Caine. You can tell he’s a little older. It’s like he soaked up all of them SMACK DVDs and Flamers mixtapes, you can hear it in his style. He's a lyricist, gifted musically, I won't just watch his videos, I'll play him in the car too. Some people try to bring up him taking from Chicago, there's 30 years of rap that comes before him of course he's gonna find shit he likes and take from that, it's the natural progression of influence. We wouldn't be who we are right now in hip-hop if it wasn't for that.

Sheff G

Sheff G is another one in this scene. Sheff’s delivery, voice, and flow is impeccable. When you hear him, you believe him. Everyone thinks Sheff is British ’cause of his voice, he kind of sounds like he has an accent [I think he’s just Haitian]. He can really rhyme and flow, it’s dope. His music has a really hard sound to it. I’m really excited to see what he’s gonna do when he puts it all together. I would love to see him add some of that heritage in there and really find his own sound. He has everything you need to be an all-time great New York artist.

ECW!

The ECW! collective. Photo by James Stone.

Sometimes you need music for the everyday Brooklyn kid. The niggas who are on that wave is ECW!. The whole squad is multicultural, they all together and brothers. I love that shit. Their sound is crazy and spaced out. They rap and trap, but also will drop some esoteric references. It’s such a mix of everything that it’s hard to trace it back to anything exactly. In the group they have Bammo Gzz, he reminds me of a baby Sean Price in a way. Everything he says is true and authentic and you feel it in your heart. Then you got Chip [Skylark], he’s bugged out, can flow, really rap, everything. They could be legendary.

The youth is amazing. The generation after mine has it all, the best of everything. They have our experiences and perspective, with the style and swag that makes Brooklyn, Brooklyn. I think what needs to happen now is for people to come into the scene who believe in it. Like Migos were dope, but they needed QC to come in and really procure that shit. The youth just need to be artistically guided by people that understand the music business. Because it’s so diverse, every vibe you could want is here. Rap in Brooklyn is in a beautiful place, now it’s just a matter of hoping the world gets a chance to see it.