"2 Legit to Quit"
Today we welcome a new artist to 444%.
Esay Bando is the moniker of Toronto based, street raised Dayan Sabando Paredes. After moving from Chile as a kid, he grew up in the Bloor / Dufferin neighbourhood, where he was exposed to the challenges of the immigrant experience and the ins and outs of life’s hustles, catching cases at a young age.
These experiences, time away and time in the street allowed pen to hit paper and creativity to become the path to escape.
“2 Legit to Quit” is the new street anthem from the d boy turned rapper, the opening salvo from his forthcoming EP A Cinderella Story. The project was produced by Rich Kidd and we’re putting it out later this year.
“The number one thing I’d like to be known is the the completion of this project happened under curfew,” he told us recently.
Having to get home early each night was the reality that inspired the Cinderella Story concept, along with with the parallels of a person looking to transform his life. There’s a lot of depth across the six records, but it all starts on the street with songs like this one.
Of “2 Legit,” Bando had this to say: “When Rich played the beat the hook just came to me. My favourite songs are the ones that write themselves because I know that they were ideas in my mind waiting to be let go. When it was complete I knew we needed a project and I knew this had to be a single.
I love the energy even more after finding out he had produced it at a program he was doing at the Toronto South Detention Centre. That helped me get some shit off my chest even more, with a big smile on my face. Free the dawgs.”
Rich Kidd had this to add: “’2 Legit’ is one of the first songs we made for the project and it signifies what I love about making music with Bando. He bridges the gap between talking that street talk and delivering clever wordplay.
Nothing seems forced but it feels calculated and expertly crafted at the same time.”
