Ecid Bio


It may seem unimaginable now, but there was a time when veteran Brooklyn-based/Minneapolis bred hip-hop artist Ecid was unsure if anyone would want to listen to his musical creations. “I didn’t really think there was gonna be much of an audience for the quirky, abstract songs I was making,” he recalls.

Five solo LPs, two EPs, and three collaborative albums later, he’s not only found an audience, he’s found one that’s filled with both hip-hop purists, and fans of the avant-garde.

Ecid’s latest project is How To Fake Your Own Death (due out May 12th via Fill In The Breaks). It’s an album influenced by grief, but at its heart is ultimately positive. 

The album’s genesis was three years ago, in the summer of 2014. Ecid had just finished recording Pheromone Heavy when his grandfather was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. After his grandfather passed away, Ecid buried himself in work, touring for a year and a half.

What he wasn’t doing was writing.

It took Ecid nearly two years before he wrote a full song again. “About a year ago now I started working on the new record,” he remembers, “and stuff just kind of spilled out of me in a different way.” 

A trained yogi, Ecid credits yoga as having a major impact on his process, noting, “It keeps my mind sharp, and heart wide open.”

While much of How To Fake Your Own Death was inspired by the passing of a loved one, Ecid explains there’s a positive spin on it, saying, “It’s my attempt at making peace.” A prime example of this is the song “Grieving Mantra,” which features Ecid teleporting to long lost memories in hopes of consoling those left in the present.

The album’s lead single, “Breaking Up With Death,” plays with the idea of death as an abusive girlfriend who can be broken up with.

There’s also a social commentary aspect to How To Fake Your Own Death, with songs like “Gentrified Utopia,” which is a critique on American culture, and “Placebo FX,” which posits that we’re “tricking the world into thinking we’re OK.”

Longtime fans of Ecid will see parallels between How To Fake Your Own Death, and his 2012 album Werewolf Hologram, which he created in the wake of his good friend Eyedea’s passing. One major difference between the albums, however, is the actual music. It’s a difference Ecid sees as a result of now being in his 30s, being comfortable in his skin, and cultivating the majority of his writing and producing in a solitary space, free of “yes men” distractions.

For this album, Ecid’s isolation led to some unhinged experimentation melodically, as he notes, “I really wanted to make this album more melodic, and less reliant on flashy bars, which was very liberating.”

What listeners won’t find on How To Fake Your Own Death is a lot of guest appearances. “It’s gotta feel right,” he explains. “I think that’s how I’ve treated everything that I’ve done to this point. I could have made stuff that was more contemporary at certain times, or done a certain style, or milked a certain style that I was doing, but I was always following what my artistic instincts were telling me to do, instead of what my business mind was thinking. It was always based on where that artistic side of my brain was going.”

Organic, honest, and melodic, whether you’ve lost a loved one, or simply love great hip-hop, Ecid has you covered with How To Fake Your Own Death.

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