Esskaye and Luchi Lue SWOL co-founders
Sean Healy is expanding Arizona's hip-hop scene by bringing national artists Paul Wall and Chamillionaire to the Venue of Scottsdale Arizona, on Friday March 26, 2010, and the Southwest Outlaw Official or SWOL , will be opening up at this event to deliver a peek into AZ's local hip-hop scene. Other local performing artists include Woodpile, Miss2Much and AZKim. The members of SWOL are EssKaye and Luchi Lue who are co-founders of the Southwest Outlaw Official an official division of the original Outlawz. Big Syke, who discovered Luchi Lue and Esskaye, is one of the original founding members of Thug Life and the Outlawz which is 2pacs first and second rap group, respectively. This is not SWOL's first trip to the main stage. They have already graced the stages by opening up for Scarface last October, 2009 as well as E-40 in November 2009. Look for the Volume 2 mix tape to be released in mid June with tracks available on www.myspace.com/
Rapping is not all that these artist do! SWOL has ignited the birth of another venture, a clothing line. The SWOL line was launched in 2009 and includes easy to wear, but durable T-shirts for men, women and children. Other items include boy shorts, and tanks. These items are currently available online as well in some local retail outlets around the valley or from local distributors. EssKaye , CEO and co-founder of Southwest Outlaw, was born in Newark , NJ but moved to Arizona at an age with few memories of the east. He states that The goal of SWOL is to represent the Southwest hip-hop scene from our point of view. " What we wanted to show is that our region of the United States has a particular style and flavor . It is that particular stlye and flavor that IS marketable and makes us what we are, and who we represent.", says EssKaye. He goes on to say, "I think that if more people in our region would recognize and appreciate the unique features in our region that make us stand out, there would be more progress in the Music and Entertainment Industry in the Arizona market." The SWOL clothing line focuses on the Southwest acronym for O.U.T.L.A.W. which is Ownership, Unity, Togetherness, Love, Always, Wins in attempt to modernize and combat the negative association with the term OUTLAW and hip-hop in general. The southwest originates with Arizona but will soon expand to also include California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. In hip-hop it is important to "hold down" your city first so we are interested in continuing to stimulate the Arizona economy, so in the mean time, look for more shows and clothing concepts near you.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
