For years, the great stand-up comic Hannibal Buress has been making music, mostly as a hobby. Buress was a regular in rap videos, especially from Chicago artists, for a long time, and on songs like Open Mike Eagle’s 2014 track “Doug Stamper (Advice Song),” he showed that he could actually rap. Back when Buress Handsome Rambler podcast was still active, he’d freestyle all the time. Today, Buress has introduced a new rap alter-ego, and he’s released his first official single.
Hannibal Buress has adapted the musical moniker Eshu Tune — Eshu being a Yoruba trickster god. The new Haile Supreme-produced single “Knee Brace” is a deeply silly piece of party music — “hit it from the back with my knee brace on” — that gives me Cool Kids vibes. In a press release, Buress has this to say:
“Knee Brace” is my magnum opus, and no one can tell me otherwise. I spilled my guts on this song. The real ones will feel it. The fake won’t understand. They got the collywobbles. There was a mystical vibe in the room the day we recorded this song. I can’t wait to perform it in Indonesia.
Listen below.
If you’re still subscribed to the Handsome Rambler podcast, though, you probably already know that Buress has been releasing similarly inclined tracks for months. Those songs are collected on his SoundCloud page, and some of them are pretty good. Two weeks ago, for instance, Buress shared the teeth-themed Danny Brown/Paul Wall collab “Veneers (Remix) (Ruffmix).” Check it out:
“Knee Brace” is out now, and you can get it at Bandcamp.
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