ALBUM REVIEW: Sergio Slayer's "Exquisite Esquire"
“Exquisite Esquire”
By Sergio Slayer
As reviewed by Allen Fennewald
Sergio Slayer takes you on a journey with his latest release, “Exquisite Esquire”.
This, his fourth solo album, marks a major achievement as Sergio fine tunes the emotional efficacy of his music. “Exquisite Esquire” is a mosaic portrait containing an array of colors and musical brush strokes. He takes you through new highs and lows, giving you a peak into his soul and struggles, lyrically and musically.
At the core of this album is the desire to succeed despite all obstacles, from systemic poverty and racial injustice to his rural roots in an urbanized music industry.
He brings it all together with bars like this in “S.O.O.N.”:
Shout out everybody making something out of nothin’,
Hailing from Missouri so they see a country bumpkin
“The topics I address affect me everyday as black man,” Sergio said. “After a lot of introspection during quarantine, I felt I needed to express the discomfort I’ve felt for years in the U.S.”
Sergio wants listeners to think about the extent of Black pain and how it impacts the infrastructure of our nation. This EP inspects the intersections and roadblocks between societal inequality, economic discord, and the drive for personal development. It revs the engine toward redemption, but recognizes the road is full of potholes.
“How I’m Rolling” comes in with an angelic synthesizer, fit for Sunday service on the moon. It’s uplifting and spiritual. It contrasts against an argument. Someone’s taking over the studio.
The driving beat gives momentum to the church synth, which rises above the verse with heavenly overtones.
Then the hook comes in like:
I ain’t shit, but please help Flint
Most get by, so we rent
It’s a cycle we barely dent
Might go psycho, they say repent
So I fly over, serpent
The grass is high, I’m not content
“Trauma On Sale” hits hard, just like its subject matter — street drugs.
The hook comes in off the first drop.
Hola at me, two for five
I keep that trauma on sale
Coming in as the second track on the EP, this may already be my favorite song on the album. It’s poignant portrayal of heavy afflictions like drug addiction and mental illness — and it rocks hard as fuck. It’s fitting. Believe it or not, he’s been rapping about these topics since he was in elementary school. Sergio got his chops in a group that rapped for the D.A.R.E. program in elementary school. He got into the group to emulate his heroes in Kris Kross and has been making music ever since. But he’s taking a much different approach to the topic these days.
This beat features a bass drum bouncing over a pitched down violin sample, like a swinging funeral procession.
Sergio comes in with riffs like:
You born alone you die alone,
Ass to grass, no tombstone
and,
Kiss my ass, and skin tone
The track also houses one of Sergio’s favorite lines on the album, brought to us by featured artist P.O.L.O. Hendrixx. It strikes directly at the heart of this record.
I really need help, but my pride runs from me
“To me it speaks volumes on problems in the black community and hip-hop/rap communities as well,” Sergio said. “People seem to listen to what they want to hear and not everything that’s said.”
📷 via Marco Devon Photography
“10 Arms” has a song with two flavors. There’s the driving, stomp-clap beat with a walking piano line that says it’s time to hit the streets. Then there’s the hypnotic bridge that seems to pick you up to waft over the sidewalk.
The song speaks to how, despite only having two arms, it feels like a black man needs 10 to get ahead in this nation.
Sergio breaks in on the beat, smooth yet powerful on the refrain.
Put my wave cap on the map
These black words like H wrap
Don’t let policy erase that
Colonizer displace facts
Featured artist, Dinero comes in on the final break, rhyming over the spacy synthesizer in Spanish like he’s the voice in the back of your head.
Sergio makes great use of samples and skits throughout the EP, but none can be better than the great James Baldwin in “Something Out of Nothing”:
When I was growing up, I was taught in American history books that Africa had no history and neither did I. That I was a savage about whom the less said the better, who had been saved by Europe and brought to America. And of course, I believed it. I didn't have much choice.
Sergio contrasts Baldwin’s calm, collected speech with his own passionate refrain.
Shout out to a change cause that mother fucka’s comin’
These are just some of the highlights Sergio Slayer has to offer on “Exquisite Esquire”. Check out the album on BandCamp to get the complete experience.
And look for Sergio Slayer if you’re around Missouri, CoMo, Fulton, KC and STL this summer. He’ll be there, “Spreading art. Spreading education. Spreading love.”
