Today we’d like to introduce you to Mohamed Abdo.
Hi Mohamed, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Mohamed “EsMod” Abdo. I’m an Ethiopian rapper-violinist and the first generation of my family to be born in the United States. I was born in Winder, GA, and moved to Memphis twelve years ago.
Since I was four years old, it was my life’s dream to be an artist (specifically an illustrator). However, as time passed, I tried more and more forms of art from illustration to graphic design to animation, and even as far as photography and videography. In sixth grade, I picked up the violin and join my school’s orchestra to start my path in music. I composed original pieces for our orchestra to play and found myself fully submerged in this new medium of art. However, in the eighth grade, my school hired a new instructor that completely derailed my passion for music. I quit orchestra upon entering high school and studied film and graphic design instead.
I started making consistent money doing graphic design commissions at 13. Between Graphic media courses, years of film, and my other studio arts classes, I felt like I finally picked the medium of art that I wanted to pursue a career in. I had my heart set on attending the Memphis College of Art after graduating to study graphic design and studio art. Then, in March of 2018, I entered a tournament in Nashville called MIST (Muslim Interscholastic Tournament) with my local mosque the Memphis Islamic Center. I went to compete in graphic design, but they said we had to do a minimum of two competitions. I saw rap on the list and thought, “I spend a lot of time writing poems so saying them out loud shouldn’t be too hard.” I placed second in the rap competition and immediately began working on my debut EP on the bus ride back to Memphis. I wrote and recorded the seven track EP in 3 weeks, and released it on April 1st, 2018. I sold CDs in school and used our school’s printing press to make a box of EsMod merch to sell with the release. I then entered my senior year with ambitions to pursue music in college, completely shocking everyone who saw me pursuing visual art my entire life.
I went on to release two more EPs in 2018, and my first full-length mixtape called “Wound of Wisdom” with my friend Jose “6kuma” Avalos on June 22nd, 2019 the summer after my graduation. I moved on to enroll at the University of Memphis for a degree in Music Industry: Recording Technology where I’m now in my fifth year, projected to graduate May of 2024. I made all of my music on my phone with GarageBand in high school until I came across a studio in 2020 called Uproar Recording, owned by Ryan Olson. I had my first studio session with him on October 26th, 2020, and have been recording all of my music there until current. Since entering college, I’ve released ten singles and one EP called the College Boyz EP with Bryce “Bo3” Owens. I am now four years deep into working on my solo debut project titled “Table For One”.
I made a name for myself in the local music scene by attending open mics and paying to perform 1-2 songs every month. By consistently showing up and doing my songs, I eventually started getting booked for shows around the city such as ArtBazaar’s New Years Eve event, ArtoberFest by Fearless Dave and the Tsunamis, and more. I started by getting 10-15 minute sets and slowly overtime got longer and better time slots. The biggest was my most recent show at ArtoberFest 2023 where I had a 51-minute set. From the open mics, I auditioned for the UofM’s record label where I got signed as an artist along with 10 other very talented people such as LaDarryl, Lemon’s, Massey Lane, and Alexis Jade. Today, I work as an audio engineer at Uproar Recording, I build stages for festivals such as the River Arts Festival and Might Roots Music Festival, do live sound for venues like Loflin Yard, and still make music and perform.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road at all. I’ve been working on my solo project since 2018, and a major problem I had between 2018 and the pandemic is growing in life at a faster rate than I was creating and releasing music. As a result, I’ve had many versions of this album that by the time I finished writing it all, I was in a completely different headspace than when I started, and scrapped it entirely. I did this about three times before landing on the current and final version, Table For One. This version of the album found a home in my heart in 2020.
After I finished one song for it, the pandemic hit. I heavily feed off of my interactions with people to fuel my creative energy. The complete isolation I experienced during the pandemic took me completely out of my creative element, resulting in a two-and-a-half-year-long writer’s block. No matter what I did or tried, I couldn’t write a song to save my life and began to contemplate if music was the right path for me. During this writer’s block, I refined my skills in graphic design and even did a semester as a graphic design major at the UofM, as well as working on my social media marketing skills which I take much pride in today. It was not until April of this year that I was able to start confidently writing again, and now I’m in the final recording phase of Table For One, aiming to release it in January of 2024.
While questioning my path and struggling to produce creative works, I was fighting real-life battles such as falling behind in school. I was working 70-hour weeks at two or three jobs and until I reached complete burnout. I did not feel any emotion whatsoever both towards good things and bad (I wrote a song about this called “Greetings of an Iridescent Sun” which will be on the upcoming album). This numbness took me nine months to get out of (Aug 2021-April 2022), which also majorly stifled my creativity. I was good for a few months until September when my world, once again; began to fall apart. That month, I lost a good friend to gun violence, again in November, a bad break up at the end of November, then lost my grandmother three days later.
Right when I didn’t think it could get any worse, I lost another friend to gun violence, and then my sixth-month-old kitten that I raised from a two-week-old a month later to open the year for 2023. I once again found myself numb and buried in long work and school hours. I got out of that head space in May, then lost my father to colon cancer in June. I’m a strong believer in God. I also believe that there are no such things as coincidences, and that everything happens for a reason. I got through those periods of helplessness by trusting in the process and believing that these events were leading me down a path with a greater purpose than I can fathom.
These events were necessary for me to experience, and have now been reborn into song form on my album. I think those experiences deeply enriched my level of maturity as well as enriched the content of my album, and I thank God for allowing me to be a vessel and a voice that’s able to put those challenges into a cohesive body of work for those who may be experiencing the same thing but don’t know how to express it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Yes. I’m most known in Memphis as a rapper. I believe what makes me stand out is adding the violin to my performances, and the fact that I do all of my creative endeavors myself. As mentioned, my curiosity and experience in all other mediums of art have set me up to be completely self-sufficient as an independent artist. My years in graphic design allow me to create all of my cover art, flyers, and promo graphics by myself. I also design all of my merchandise, the first batch I printed myself.
Whenever I have a concert, I bring all of my merch set up a table, and work the table before and after my set. My time composing music for the orchestra translated into beat-making for my rap songs. I shoot and edit all of my music videos, and do all of the promo photoshoots for my merch page: EsMod Apparel. I record myself at the studio when I’m not working with Ryan. Any form of art I need to push and promote my music career, I do it all myself. That is what I’m most proud of as a creative.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I believe that taking risks is what makes life worth living. Taking risks IS living. If you’re not willing to take a chance on something, big or small, then what’s the point of being alive. I believe the first major risk I took was pursuing music in college. Many people don’t see music as a stable or safe career choice. Some people don’t even see it as a REAL or remotely viable career option. Many people, family members and friends alike, tried to convince me to play it safe and go to college for graphic design so that “if the music didn’t work out,” then I would have something to fall back on. When I set my mind on something, I don’t believe in “playing it safe.” I’m very much an all-or-nothing man, in my career, in relationships, in jobs, and so on.
If it’s not something I’m willing to give my 100% to, I don’t bother with it at all. Some of the financial risks I’ve taken were spending lots of money on an inventory of merchandise and a website for e-commerce that took me a long time to break even on, but it was worth the publicity and the investment. Even if I came out negative on a season, as long as people were walking around with my merch on somewhere then it was a win for me.
Another risk that is universal for artists is the great amount of money you have to spend on making music. Spending hundreds to thousands on studio time for less than a penny per stream was a major financial investment and loss that I made my peace with on the front end. I’m fortunate that my skillset in arts allows me to save a great amount of money. Artists will always lose money starting before making a profit later down the line. The most recent major risk I took was quitting my well-paying job to have time to finish my album and school.
Pricing:
- EsMod Bucket Hats $30
- EsMod T-shirts $20-25
- EsMod Tote Bags- $20
- Engineering- $50/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://esmodenterprises.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sapphire.derma https://instagram.com/esmod.apparel
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsmohamedagain
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@esmodmusic4349
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/1esmod
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6le1ZoRT92pfmfkCj7Ke4V
Image Credits
Mohamed Abdo, Brandon Mensah, Semir Ahmed, Harris Beauchamp, and Joshua Jones
