Album: Ezale & DJ Fresh – The Tonite Show With Ezale

Oakland’s Funkiest Emcee Drops His Second Full-Length Project, Premiered by The FADER Who Insists It’s “The Funk-Rap Odyssey You Need”

09.09.16

Critical Praise for Ezale:

“Oakland rapper Ezale is the funkiest human on the planet.” – Buzzfeed

“Ezale’s The Tonight Show with Ezale is the funk-rap odyssey you need.” – The FADER

“One of the best albums of the year” – XXL

The Album:

With an effortless, endless flow and an affinity for funky beats, Ezale is the latest eccentric personality to burst onto the national scene. Hailing from the East Oakland community of Highland Park, better known as Funktown, Ezale returns today with The Tonite Show with Ezale, premiered via The FADER, a collaboration with the venerable Oakland producer DJ Fresh that XXL calls “One of the best albums of the year.” A ten-track collection of silky smooth keys, slinking basslines, and laid-back drugged-out wordplay, The Tonite Show with Ezale is the follow-up to Ezale’s popular 2014 mixtape Drug Funnie. Available today on iTunes and Spotify, The Tonite Show with Ezale is the latest volume in DJ Fresh’s Tonite Show series, which features installments from the likes of Raekwon, Mozzy, Trae Tha Truth, Freddie Gibbs, Mistah F.A.B., Keak Da Sneak, J Stalin among others. “For anybody in the Bay Area growing up, you damn near thought anyone DJ Fresh did an album with was signed,” explains Ezale to The FADER. “And I thought they were signed to a major label. That’s how much I loved DJ Fresh. I always wanted to do a Tonite Show and I knew that if I ever got to do one, I wasn’t gonna play with it.”

Expanding upon the mob-inspired sound of predecessor Drug Funnie, The Tonite Show with Ezale is packed with rider’s anthems, party-starters, and reflective tracks. Ezale demonstrates an easy chemistry with DJ Fresh and his cadre of production cohorts. In March, Ezale released “Day Ones,” produced by DJ Fresh protege Hawk Beatz, which The FADER called “an ode to friendship” with Ezale “in top form.” More recently, Ezale dropped the video for slinky bedroom jam “We Want Some Pussy,” which features Ezale dancing on the beach with a few lady friends: “Bitches love me cause I’m nonchalant,” raps Ezale in the song’s second verse. Other highlights from the project include the stomping, stuttering “Stop Come On” and the triumphant closer “In A Day.”

Explains Ezale: “I like to sample real music with songs that have messages that move you. For the project, I got Teena Marie, Alexander O’Neal, Surface, New Edition (must be from the era when Bobby was still in the group), and Cameo, one of my favorite groups in the world. These are just a few that I’m looking at from my record collection, REAL RECORDS – the kind that you can sling out your window and shoot with a shotgun.”

Ezale’s rapid rise began three years ago with the release of the “Five Minutes of Funktown” video, in which Ezale enlists 100 of his closest friends to mob around the neighborhood and give into the funk. Inspired by Whodini‘s 1984 classic “Five Minutes of Funk” and the nickname for his Oakland neighborhood, “Five Minutes of Funktown” racked up nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube, earned the rapper a feature in Buzzfeed, and his dance moves inspired a popular Instagram challenge. Ezale built upon his “Funktown”-inspired momentum with the 2014 release of Drug Funnie, highlighted by T-Pain flip “Too High,” played over a million times on SoundCloud and nearly two million times on YouTube, and the 2015 release of loose video single “I Ain’t Trippin’ Off Nuthin’.” The Tonite Show with Ezale is available for purchase on iTunes and stream on Spotify.

Buy The Tonite Show with Ezale: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-tonite-show-with-ezale/id1141488572?ign-mpt=uo%3D8

Check out The FADER premiere: http://www.thefader.com/2016/09/08/ezale-the-tonite-show-with-ezale-stream

Stream The Tonite Show with Ezale on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ezale/sets/the-tonite-show-with-ezale/s-rruFO

Please contact Michelle or Dharmic for more info.

Ezale Background

Ezale follows in the brash, devil-may-care tradition of Mac Dre while leaving his own mark on the Bay Area rap scene. Based in Oakland, the affable independent rapper made his name during the mid-2010s with tracks like “5 Minutes of Funktown,” “Foreal Foreal,” and “I Ain’t Trippin’ Off Nothin’,” frequently refurbishing funk and old-school classics by the likes of Rick James, Run-D.M.C., and Whodini. In 2016, DJ Fresh tapped Ezale for a volume in his Tonite Show series. The Tonite Show with Ezale, issued that September, was promoted with the slinking, 2 Live Crew-referencing “We Want Some Pussy.” ~ Andy Kellman, Allmusic