Norwood News

It’s five o’ clock on a Friday and Eshawn Hall is just starting his evening. Slipping through the doors of the 4-train at Bedford Park Boulevard with CDs in hand and fat headphones wedged above his ears, the veteran rapper/entrepreneur drops his backpack as the train starts moving.

Hall swaggers through the subway cars in a bright blue T-shirt that reads “Magnetic Entertainment” on the back, peddling his wares. He belts out the same jingle in a catchy singsong style. “If you don’t like hip-hop—right now—we don’t either,” he declares.

“I don’t want a CD, but can I have your autograph?” a man says, motioning to Hall as he approaches.

The 34-year-old Hall has made his name as a traveling salesman by being a walking advertisement for his own music, which he’s successfully turned into a part-time business venture.

Over the past decade and a half, Hall (rap alter-ego: DJ Mista Smoke) says he’s independently sold more than 300,000 CDs. Two of his songs are licensed to the cable television show “Starved” and he’s performed alongside the likes of L.L. Cool J and, 2 Live Crew. (He says he had the chance to perform with the Notorious B.I.G. but was working at Pizza Hut and couldn’t afford to lose his job.)

A recent graduate of Metropolitan College, where he earnedith a master’s degree in public administration, Hall lives in the Edenwald section of the Bronx with his wife of four years. When he’s not working his full-time job working for a at a nonprofit housing agency, Hall is hustling his music every week on the subway while riding the train for hours at a time, from the Bronx to Brooklyn and back again.

“We’re in the middle of an economic downturn,” Hall says. “I understand if someone’s not as willing to reach in their pocket and pull out a five dollar bill when they could be using that to pay for gas or for a MetroCard.”

Nevertheless, Hall says he manages to make an extra $70 a day, a little less than when he started in 2004, but with the same motivation to reach out to customers on the trainspread his righteous hip-hop gospel.

“A lot of hip-hop right now is just negative and idiotic,” Hall says.

Hall says his music is different because it doesn’t talk about violence, objectifying women or dealing drugs. (For example, a song written about his lighter talks about all the other ways he uses it besides to smoke cigarettes or weed; “I light it for them, warnings for those that steal, that steal, is it worth getting killed? Getting killed?”)

“I rap about everyday things like arguments with my wife, or trying to make money, and my experiences selling my music,” says Hall, crediting his education for his enlightened lyrical style.
Growing up in the Bronx River Projects, Hall had a front seat to the rise of the Zulu Nation, a cultural movement to revitalize positive hip-hop ideals, founded by legendary hip-hop icon Afrika Bambaataa. 

“I was just a little kid and everyone looked like they were having a great time,” Hall said. “I was just up there looking down from my window, just watching and wishing I could have been part of it.”

At South Carolina State University, Hall began spinning records and performing. He and two like-minded friends formed the musical group, M.P.C., or Most Popular Criminals. After gaining a presence by selling their product out of the trunks of cars, Hall moved back to New York looking to spread his popularity on the East Coast.
One day on the subway he formed his next great idea.

“I was sitting there and I saw these kids come through, doing their whole routine dancing for money,” Hall said. “After a while you want to stop watching, but you know, it’s like a commercial, you’re right there and you can’t avoid them.”

After a mobile candy store and a homeless man had also passed through, Hall thought, “I could do that.” And he has.

But what really drives Hall, he says, is the message he is trying to get out—that the pen is really mightier than the sword. 

“I want kids to see that you can go to school and rap and it doesn’t make you any less of an artist,” he said.

It’s easy for someone to stand on the corner and sell drugs, Hall says. But going to school, getting your degree and legally earning money for your family? That’s hard.

To help those who want to stay on the right path, Hall says he wants to write a self-help book for new college students. “It’s a whole, brave new world for them. A lot of things they’re going to see are going to be drug use, peer pressure, sororities,” he says.

“All these people are just trying to fit, but they’re still expected to go to school and get an education.”

Though he’s still looking for that big breakthrough, Hall prides himself on having made enough money to pay for his entire wedding, including the ring and honeymoon.

“If I don’t get anything else from it, at least I got that.” Hall said. “And that’s a beautiful feeling.”

Ed. Note: To check out music by DJ Mista Smoke, visit his Web site at http://web.mac.com/eshawn_3