Friendships that can stand the test of time are life-changing. Even more impressive is the will and ability to maintain a relationship while changing careers, growing older and creating together while experiencing life through it all.
Tenelle Winmore and Ryan “Big Esco” Brown’s friendship has lasted through high school, college, new careers and four Souls of Liberty albums. Their latest release, “20,000 Hours Vol. 1: Return of the Gods” shows how they have matured as men and as hip-hop artists.
The album cover shows them as boys at Brown’s 13th birthday party. It was around this time that the duo started writing their own music.
“In middle school [and] high school, [Winmore] would write a rap every day,” Brown said on St. Louis on the Air.
Winmore added that around that time, rapper Soulja Boy had become popular. “We were like, ‘You know what? We got to do this,’” he said. “We thought, ‘We rap a lot better than Soulja Boy.’ That was [what got] us started. I kind of forced [Brown] to rap with me.”
Since then, Souls of Liberty has found success throughout the years. The duo has opened for hip-hop superstars like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Wale. They also have individual careers — Winmore is the athletic director and varsity basketball coach at Metro Academic and Classical High School, and Brown is a creative director and content writer for publications like Blavity and Leafly.
Their motivation is to give back and connect to their community, specifically to the youth. “[Being a rapper] makes me the coolest teacher ever [to my students],” Winmore said. “I think it brings us closer. They look to us like people that they can trust to help them grow along on their journey.”
On “20,000 Hours Vol. 1: Return of the Gods,” Winmore and Brown rap about being true to themselves — a sentiment that the pair attribute to the gaps in time between albums. Their previous album, “Surrounded By Idiots,” was released five years ago. Before then, there was a four-year gap between album releases.
“We are not ‘microwave artists.’ We create when we are inspired,” Brown said. “We never started rapping to make money. That’s not what gave us the fuel to go. It was the passion for the music and having something to say. I think people are ready to hear us again.”
Other St. Louis artists are featured on “20,000 Hours,” including rappers Shana B and J’DEMUL. Being close to home and creating an album for St. Louis was of utmost importance to Winmore. “Not only are we rappers, we are also great producers. We felt like [Shana B] will be perfect for a song like ‘Watchin’ and she did not disappoint,” he said. “She is one of the best female rappers I’ve ever heard from [St. Louis].”
Fans will not have to wait five years for Souls of Liberty’s next album. With “20,000 Hours” being volume one, a second volume will soon follow.
“We’ve been working on ‘20,000 Hours’ seriously for two to three years,” Brown said. “We’ve got songs that we can put out, that sound super relevant today, that we wrote five years ago.”
For more on Souls of Liberty’s brotherhood, music and career, including an exclusive peek into what they have in store for their next album, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast, or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
