Esham is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. Esham released his debut studio album, Boomin' Words from Hell, in 1989. Since then, he has gone on to release 15 studio albums in total and is best known as a representative of the hip hop subgenres horrorcore and rap rock. In 1992, he co-founded the horrorcore group Natas. He and his brother James Smith founded and ran the Detroit hip hop label Reel Life Productions. As one of the first rappers to receive attention in the city, Esham was often cited as a major influence on another Detroit horrorcore act, Insane Clown Posse. Esham is known for incorporating elements of rock music in his beats, and his lyrics cover a number of subjects, including death, drug use, evil, paranoia and sex. Esham refers to his style of music as "acid rap". Biography Early career Esham grew up splitting time between the Seven Mile neighborhood on the East side of Detroit, Michigan, where he lived with his mother. He attended Osborn High School, and lived with his grandmother in New York during summers. He studied piano, guitar, and trombone in high school, and listened to artists such as Sugar Hill Gang, Run-DMC, Ozzy Osbourne and Kiss. Esham began to write original lyrics, and was encouraged by his older brother, James H. Smith, to seriously pursue a career in hip hop. According to Esham, "He felt like I had a dope flow, and he thought I could bring something new to the game, just coming from the city of Detroit. Back then, it wasn't really a [rap] music scene in Detroit. Everybody was just imitating what everybody else was doing." In the second grade, Esham met Champtown, who was also an aspiring rapper. The two performed together at open mic events Seafood Bay. In one occurrence, Champtown and Esham were forced to rap for a drug dealer at gunpoint. Esham released his debut album, Boomin' Words from Hell, in 1989. Of the album, Esham stated, "It was the crack era, [...] and that's where all that really came from. It was all an expression about ['70s-'80s drug cartel] Young Boys Incorporated, Mayor Coleman Young, the city we lived in and just the turmoil that our city was going through at the time. We referred to the streets of Detroit as 'Hell' on that record. So that's where my ideas came from." In 1990,