A Conversation With Emanuel Casablanca

How do you combine those two influences in your music? 

I listen to 90’s Hip-Hop a lot for the lyricism and blues and other roots music for melodic and rhythmic instrumental inspiration. I find it brilliant how battle rappers can just come up with some of the craziest stories or punchlines off the top of their head. When you listen to 12-bar blues, specifically Delta and Chicago blues, it is all about the punchlines. From blues came other roots music genres including gospel, giving birth to R&B, which then gave birth to funk/hard funk, and ultimately gave birth to Hip-Hop music. So I guess in retrospect, they are all one and the same. Everything came from blues. 

What do you want listeners to take away from the records?  

I want listeners to enjoy the music and vibe out to it however they choose to do so. However, for me, it has to be about more than just the music. I want to give listeners an experience and I also want all consumers to see a Black man at the forefront of the blues world. As crazy as it may seem, despite it being a genre originated and amplified by Black Americans, when you look at the top ten contemporary blues musicians today, less than one-third of them are Black. On a top ten list, most top ten lists, you will only find one. I find it very unfortunate, as some of my peers will refer to it as “white people’s music.” Sometimes when hearing that, it makes my jaw want to drop to the ground, but that is the state of music and of music consumers.

You grew up in Brooklyn. How did the city influence your musical style? 

New York City is full of all musical styles and genres. Growing up where I grew up, the demographic naturally listened to a lot of rap music, however, I grew up in a house of musicians so I was exposed to other genres, specifically gospel and old soul. Furthermore, I had friends all over the city, so there were so many opportunities to lean into other genres. I really wanted to play garage rock. It was a passion of mine to pursue that specific genre, but like they say, “you don’t choose the blues, the blues chooses you.”

What’s next for you? 

At this stage I have two primary focuses: 1. Aligning myself with lifestyle brands and 2. Entrepreneurship. With COVID-19, being so prevalent, it’s important for musicians to remain eventful, so working with brands for write-ups and press is crucial. Furthermore, working with cool brands is important. I want consumers to start looking at blues music as something that is current and not something antiquated, or something that we’re just “trying to keep alive.” The motto of The Blues Foundation is “Keepin’ The Blues Alive”, and as much as I love everything the organization does for musicians and for blues music, the blues are alive and well– they have never died. The blues world is such a small world, but there are so many resources and so many opportunities in this world and I would like to create more. There are also a lot of very young musicians in the genre and they will lack longevity if they don’t have opportunities. Additionally, companies are really missing out on a very large young demographic whose thought process counters many of their peers. Regarding entrepreneurship, I am working on my upcoming album, Blood on My Hands, but I am working with some companies to bring the first blues festival to Brooklyn, NY. We are also developing a 501(c)(3) non-profit, Kings County Blues Society, to offer local NYC musicians health insurance, legal support, music mixing, music mastering, music distribution and more. For me, it is not enough to just be a musician these days. We live in a world where musicians are CEOs of companies and actually doing the work. I want to be so much more than just someone who can sing and play the guitar.