Fifth

On the first Friday of every month, we put the spotlight on one up-and-coming artist doing great things; for November’s First Look Friday, we take a look at the El Paso-based rapper The Fifth Estate.

Myke Joyner, better known as rapper The Fifth Estate, speaks eagerly about his recent appearance at this year’s A3C Festival & Conference in Atlanta. He performed alongside a handful of up-and-coming rappers from across the country while getting the opportunity to attend panels featuring J. Prince and other veterans of the music industry. The opportunity is indicative of Joyner’s rising status as an artist — a former military captain who is now a budding rapper coming out of El Paso, Texas.

Born in California but primarily raised in Killeen, Texas, Joyner was always in proximity to rap music. Influenced by Soulja Boy and rap music coming out of Houston from the early to late 2000s, he and a friend started rapping together in high school. But Joyner didn’t care much for the type of rap he was making let alone being exposed to.

Outkast‘s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below changed that — he loved the way Big Boi and Andre 3000 crafted their own stories and particularly admired the versatility of the latter’s album. Upon moving to New York to attend West Point, he became obsessed with East Coast rap, especially boom bap rap.

While at West Point he also had a revelation — he wanted to make music and create a type of rap music reminiscent of the golden age rap he had become obsessed with. Joyner started making music while he was still in the military, studying from those that influenced him — A Tribe Called Quest, Souls of Mischief, Eminem — while trying to find his own sound.

So far, he’s had two proper releases: an EP titled Clandestine and a mixtape titled Stuck in the ’90s. By the time Joyner released the latter he was living in El Paso and essentially done serving in the military. The project was a proper intro, Joyner paying homage to the golden age of rap while making a name for himself in El Paso’s local music scene.

But Joyner wants to be more than “the ’90s guy.” Although that will always be his foundation he wants to blend his love of ’90s rap with what’s happening in contemporary rap, and his new EP, Once Upon a Sign, is a reflection of that.



On Once Upon a Sign, his new two-track release premiering on Okayplayer, Joyner is crafting both good raps and songs. The standout of the two is surely “Getaway Drug” featuring fellow El Paso rapper and singer A Billi Free. The track feels like a summer day spent at a roller skating rink, Joyner and Billi trading raps back and forth over upbeat production by Zou High Beats.

The EP serves as a precursor to his upcoming album, S.I.G.N.S., which is slated to drop in February 2019. As a part of our First Look Friday series, Joyner spoke with us about getting into rap, performing at A3C and why 93 ’til Infinity and Midnight Marauders — which both turn 25 this year — mean so much to him.

How did you get into rapping and when would you say you started taking it seriously?

I got into rap in high school. One of my childhood best friends had moved away and lived in Mississippi for a while and when he came back he was like “Yo, we gotta do this rap thing.” This was around the time when Soulja Boy popped off and so that’s the type of energy that we were on when we first started rapping and everything. But I didn’t really start doing serious things until about 2013.

You were a part of the military for some time. How did that shape your work ethic and approach around making music?

It definitely had an effect. In 2015, I was working on a project, military sucked up a lot of my time, and I got put in a place where it was like put up or shut up. My best friend and now manager sent a video of Eric Thomas, the motivational speaker. It kind of just put my feet to the fire. Like “Yo, if you want this then set yourself up for success,” you know? Do everything possible while you still have this 9-5 paycheck and then you actually have a foundation to go from.

I didn’t tell a lot of people that I made music up until my last year and a half in service because I’ve seen people in the military do those things and a lot of them end up getting looked at as like some sort of gimmick. Like “Oh you’re a rapper?” and the whole stigma around that, especially as a black man.

I was working around a bunch of white people, and I was an officer, so I silenced myself a lot. I didn’t speak about certain things in my raps because I couldn’t get too political with certain things because it was technically against the law for my job.

First Look Friday: The Fifth Estate Wants To Make Timeless Music Like '93 'til Infinity' And 'Midnight Marauders'
Source: The Fifth Estate
You were originally born in California but raised in Central Texas. Was that around the time when Texas rap was bubbling and were you aware of that culture while you were living there?

Yeah, for sure. I did the vast majority of my schooling out in Texas in the Fort Hood area in Killeen. I graduated from high school in ’09, so from about ’03 until about that time that’s when everything popped off. That’s when Mike Jones became a national thing — Paul Wall, UGK, Swishahouse. All that stuff definitely influenced how I did things because that’s how everybody was doing it.

But I didn’t start listening to rap consistently until high school, like ’04-’05. Rap kind of came along late because it never really appealed to me. I was listening to a lot of old-school R&B and Motown, as well as indie rock and pop music. When I did start getting into rap Outkast was probably the most I listened to.

It was when I went to West Point for college that’s when I found my real core in music and that time frame is when I started really diving into and researching, you know, the foundations of hip-hop and everything. I was heavy on MF Doom, J Dilla and Madlib, as well as Wale, J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T and all those kinds of cats when they started truly to become popular.

So you’re in West Point and that’s when you got your proper introduction into boom bap rap. What was it for you that clicked about that style of rap, and can you remember the moment that occurred?

I would say it actually clicked for me in terms of like what style I liked around my junior or senior year in high school. I’ll probably say Speakerboxx/The Love Below but more specifically The Love Below was the first one that really snatched me up. I remember my first day in my basic training at West Point, and I’m standing in this formation and the sun is setting and my head is shaved and I got these thick ass glasses on and I look like a weirdo. And as I’m standing there it hits me — you should definitely be making music because that’s exactly what you want to do.

A lot of stuff I wanted to do at first was storytelling but I was in a weird place where it was like what do I have to talk about in my personal life? I’m a straight-laced kid from the fucking suburbs, you know? So like a lot of what I did was tell stories about shit that I had seen or stuff that like my homies had gone through or my parents had gone through and just worked on taking an entire experience and making it something that’s entertaining to listen to.

In 2016 did I start actually writing really personal records. I finally had broken out of that shell and realized like “Dude you actually got shit to talk about and that’s what’s going to make people want to listen to you — talking about relatable shit.”

First Look Friday: The Fifth Estate Wants To Make Timeless Music Like '93 'til Infinity' And 'Midnight Marauders'
Source: The Fifth Estate
I think that you mention that part specifically about how because of how you grew up you felt that there, it was hard to contribute because rap music was limited in its representation back then. Now we’ve gotten to an era of middle-class rap where we have artists like Donald Glover or J. Cole who’ve carved out a fanbase for themselves.

Exactly and I feel like that’s why artists like Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Kid Cudi appeal to me. I remember the first time I heard “Touch the Sky” and that was the first time I had ever heard Lupe. I remember him rapping “Guess who’s on third, Lupe’s steal like Lupin the Third” and I was like “Whoa. Who is this rapping about anime?” Even though Lupe still comes from rough parts of Chicago, the fact that he introduced things that are “not for black kids” helped me come to terms with who I am, what I like, and that not invalidating the fact that I’m still black. Because I could be from the suburbs talking proper and all that shit and have a 3.5 GPA in school and still get fucked up by the cops.



Last year you released your mixtape Stuck in the ’90s and I was wondering do you consider that your first proper project as The Fifth Estate?

So for me personally, ’90s tends to be my second project as Fifth because at the beginning of 2016, I released a seven-track EP called Clandestine. The issue with that was: the project was great, it was wonderful. I wasn’t able to push and market that project the same way I was able to do so for Stuck in the ’90s because I was deployed and in Guam.

I left the country just after the new year and released it on January 8. I was 17 hours ahead of most people in the states, you know? So I pressed up copies and stuff, and I handed them out and mailed people stuff. I pressed up 105 copies and gave them all away for free. Just to establish myself and build connections and relationships and everything like that.

What led to you kind of going backwards and being nostalgic instead of going for a more modern sound?

So the original idea was to write records to some of the greatest instrumentals that came out during the golden era and package it as a classic mixtape. As time evolved and I was getting beats and everything, my right-hand man Moon was like “We can do a lot of these as original records and everything.” And I just wanted to pay my respect, because I felt like, at the time, there was not a lot of respect being given to essentially everything that made hip-hop what it is today.



How did the songs on Once Upon a Sign end up coming about and what was it like working with A Billi Free?

Both of the records were made by my friend, producer Zou High Beats. Zou and I are the product of SoundCloud, because he is a Serbian dude from the Netherlands. He actually produced one of the songs off Stuck in the ’90s. So both of those beats he sent me actually a little bit ago. Probably about eight months ago.

“Break the Seal” is essentially me coming out of my shell. I just turned 27 this summer. I thought I had my life pretty much figured out and then I stepped out and I was like “Fuck, there’s way more to go.” I’ve been peeling back the layers and learning that I don’t have to fight my demons. All I have to do is learn to live with them, you know? And channeling that energy towards something specific.

“Get Away Drug” was different because from the moment I heard it I knew I wanted to work with somebody on it. And I don’t work with people often. So Billi and I — I heard about her all last year, but we didn’t meet until about February of this year. We were both involved in a project that some local photographers had started. So we got to meet and get to understand each other as artists and I’ve been a massive fan of hers ever since.

I hit her up and was like “Billi can I sent you something?” and she said “Yeah, no problem.” So I send it to her, I give her kind of a basic synopsis of what I’m thinking. She hits me back that night and she’s like “You’re going to have a verse by tomorrow.” And I was like “Oh fuck.” The next evening she sends me a sample of her verse and I was like “What the fuck? Damn! Not only did you capture this perfectly, you went in!” I started writing to it immediately. That’s the fastest I’ve ever started and completed a record. That entire song was done within 48 hours.

It’s extremely groovy and I actually got inspired to do the record the way I did it after listening to “Ace” off Noname‘s Room 25. It’s Noname, Smino, and Saba singing the hook. Noname comes in and then Saba — it’s like a bounce pass. A tag team. That’s the feel I wanted to go for because Billi is an MC. I’ve heard a lot of people refer to her as a singer and vocalist which is not false. But it’s not the full picture. Y’all don’t really know, she can spit.

First Look Friday: The Fifth Estate Wants To Make Timeless Music Like '93 'til Infinity' And 'Midnight Marauders'
Cover art for The Fifth Estate’s Once Upon a Sign EP. Source: The Fifth Estate
Speaking of the new album, what can you tell me about it? And how else would you say it differs than Stuck in the 90s?

It’s gonna be more modern. There are records that I have already completed that are going to throw people for a loop with me. They’ve never heard me do those sorts of things. It’s going to be between 10 and 12 tracks. It’s gonna have enough length and maturity it in.

You recently performed at A3C. What was that like and was there any really memorable moments that you had?

The biggest part of the entire experience for me was the conference because they set up A3C in a similar way like SXSW does in terms of all the interactive stuff. YouTube was there, Acai was there, TuneCore was there. It was really an artist’s festival. A festival by artists, for artists, and I really felt that.

That was my first time to Atlanta. I’ve never been there. Never played a show. The amount of love that that city gives, it was wild. To go all the way the fuck across the country to people who don’t know me, have no reason to care about who I am other than I’m associated with A3C, and then figuring out like “Yo, they fuck with you. They really feeling what you putting down in a major way.” I left empowered and excited. I’ve never been more excited about music ever.

First Look Friday: The Fifth Estate Wants To Make Timeless Music Like '93 'til Infinity' And 'Midnight Marauders'
Source: The Fifth Estate
Lastly, two albums I know influenced you significantly, Souls of Mischief’s 93 ’til Infinity and A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, both turn 25 this year. What is it about these albums make them timeless?

I can definitely say when I was younger it was a lot of, “Hey, you rap. You should know this. You should be familiar with this.” The older I get, those albums encapsulate exactly how I feel about my music, because I can pick up 93 ’til Infinity, press play, listen to it front to back, and still get the same value out of it I did when I first heard it. 93 ’til Infinity is my favorite rap song of all fucking time. Every time I hear it I get something different.

I feel like that’s what makes shit timeless. There’s so many different facets to learn from and it’s because of artists like that that’s why I take certain aspects of my craft very seriously. I’m very anal retentive about my artwork and everything. I want it to look a certain way. I want it to convey a certain message on its own outside of music, whether it’s super complex or not.
If I can pick up Midnight Mauraders right now and learn anything, even writing, production, presentation, artwork, videos, everything — the more things I can derive from it the more it stays with me.

Follow The Fifth Estate on Instagram and Twitter. - Okayplayer

The minute you listen to a song by The Fifth Estate you notice something a bit different about his flow and delivery. You can tell he’s having a blast creating music and it shines not only through the sounds but also the cadence with which he raps. In his project “Stuck In The 90s” The Fifth Estate takes the nostalgia of the 90’s and presents it in a way that pays homage to the classic time period through a modern lense. I had a chance to sit down with the Texas emcee and talk about a number of topics.

DEHH: For those who don’t know who is The Fifth Estate?

The Fifth Estate: Fifth is of the people and for the people. Always. He’s an ambivert. He’s a walking stream of consciousness and random. He’s way too introspective and a routine victim of his own thoughts. He makes the music he wants to hear. Yeah, I just did that all in third person, haha.

DEHH: Now obviously hip-hop exists everywhere but tell me a bit about hip-hop in Texas

FE: Man, Texas hip-hop is a beast because our state is so huge. I think it’s mostly known for UGK, Swisha House, and screw tapes but it’s so much more. I currently live in El Paso which is the furthest west that you can go in the state without hitting New Mexico. It’s roughly 10 hours from where I grew up and (it goes without saying) there’s a heavy Mexican influence on all of the local music and acts. Outside of Houston and Dallas, I don’t think Texas hip-hop is well defined which is fine by me. It allows me to create how I want to create without fear.

DEHH: I’m sure you know the market these days and while I was pleasantly surprised to hear a project influenced by the sounds of the 90s, but some genuinely feel the sound is dated and shouldn’t be pursued anymore. What was the motivation behind the project?

FE: So a bit of background; m o o n is my right hand man and one of my best friends. We both came up on a lot of underground hip-hop and stuff with a lot more soul to it. Although neither of us are hip-hop purists (we once were), we just felt that we owed it to our roots to make a project paying homage. I feel like that nostalgic sound evokes my most thought provoking and lyrical content, currently. I’m way more than that boom bap sound but I have such love and respect for it. Stuck in the 90s was a very personal project in many ways than one. It was sort of a reawakening.

DEHH: It would have been real easy to just take some beats from 90s and rap over them, you went the extra mile and grabbed your own team of producers and crafted your own sound. Tell me a bit about the production and the team around and enlighten me a bit on what the recording process was like?

FE: The whole recording process was relatively simple in itself. I have a home studio that I work out of and outsource all of my recorded files to Tyler Wrighteous for mixing and mastering. It’s funny because until this project, I’d really only worked with Tyler as an engineer. A mutual friend put us in contact like three years ago and we’ve been working together ever since. Zou High and I are mutual fans of one another and linked up through SoundCloud. Jay Humble is an OG and m o o n’s mentor from back in the day. He put us in contact with one another and I was fortunate enough to work with him and get the beats for WARGAMES and Back Home. The most interesting thing about this project is that it’s very 2017. I mean that to say that I’ve never actually met Jay, Zou, or Tyler in person. M o o n has spent the majority of this year overseas too so all of these beats were emailed back and forth. It was a bit disconnected but I talked with everyone pretty often as I created the project.

DEHH: There are all types of callbacks on this record to 90s shows, cartoons, video games, artists and more, what’s your favorite part of the 90s?

FE: Dude, the 90’s had SOOOOO much to it but I’d have to say 90’s cartoons take the cake. It was actually a while before I watched anything that wasn’t a cartoon on my own. Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney, and movies were the genesis.

DEHH: You gotta fill me in man, what inspired “Korean Jesus Speaks” I was cracking up through the joint

FE: Yo, the whole KJS moment wasn’t planned at all haha. We originally had some other skits planned but I just got a voice message one day from m o o n, out of the blue and that was it. One take. No rehearsal, just off the cuff. It was hilarious. I don’t think he wanted it on there but everyone lost it when they first heard it. Most people don’t know this but he’s Korean American from Rowland Heights, CA. He’s wild, period. I’ll just leave it at that.

DEHH: Breaking into the artist space is not easy, what tips would you give up and coming artists that want to forward their career and the culture?

FE: I don’t have this thing figured out at all but I can assess the growth and progress I’ve made in one calendar year. I’d say that it’s important to be a student. That’s how I see myself in relation to everything around me. Constantly learning. What’s most important is, learn your craft and find your voice/sound. I’m still in the process of perfecting my voice and finding my sound. Next, I’d say take the time to craft your image on social media and in person. Then learn your local scene and network with not only musicians but people in the culture. Remember that if you want to make it a career, you need to take it seriously and actually invest time, money, and energy in yourself. Don’t go for broke and don’t neglect your responsibilities. I don’t believe in that “no sleep” grind. Balance yourself and learn as much as you can.

DEHH: What’s coming next for you? Any shows we should know about? Will we get an album from you in 2018?

FE: I want to get Stuck in the 90s in front of as many people as possible and not just digitally. I was fortunate enough to be a small part of an unofficial SXSW showcase this year and I plan to be back there in full effect. I have one big local show that I’m planning that’ll close out the year for me (information coming soon). I’m going to do a hell of a lot of travelling to introduce myself to new audiences and I’ll say that a project (album or not) will be out next year. It’s all about the progression. - Dead End Hip Hop

The 90’s, that’s when yours truly and many others in the artist space were born, the 90’s were when we had classics like Sonic the Hedgehog (before Sega brutally murdered him), Rugrats, Pepperann and more that made us who we are today. Texas emcee The Fifth Estate has taken this aesthetic and not just made a project inspired by it, but a full tape immersed to the point you feel like you went in a time machine back to dope raps and beats for the cookout.

When I first heard about the project I was hype, a tape with some 90s sounding beats with Fifth Estate just ripping through the production like a cypher sounded right up my alley. However he’s created so much more than that basic idea, because the 90s were more than that. In fact the intro to the tape reminded me a lot of Chance’s intro to “Acid Rap” done Fifth Estate style. The next two tracks “What It Is” & “Soul (We Got)” show how dedicated Fifth is to this. I pray I get to see Fifth live because the hook in “What It Is” is perfect for calling back to the audience.

Speaking of “Soul (We Got)” brings me to the production and if I’m being frank it blew me away, this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Again when approached with the tape, I expected 90s instrumentals some that I had heard some that I hadn’t, instead the team of Jay Humble, Tyler Wrighteous, m o o n & Zou High throw you right into the 90s with a number of sounds. “Soul (We Got)” evoked an Exile feel and the Jay Humble produced “Back Home” can’t help but have you in your feels as we enter adulthood.

The Fifth Estate’s approach to “Stuck In The 90s” is varied, he’s not just taking the stereotypical route. It would have been real easy to take Nas’ “The World Is Yours” and the like and just tear through every beat but have his own spin on it. Instead we get a bit of everything from The Fifth Estate, he adds a bit of singing to the tracks, changing up the tempo. But then we also get tracks like “Manifest” where we get an aggressive Fifth Estate speaking his truth over a trippy beat beat by m o o n.

This is a creative release and The Fifth Estate’s praise of the 90s is unapologetically drenched in nostalgia while not sticking to one 90s stereotype. The potential is easily there and I’m really curious to see what a full-length from The Fifth Estate would sound like. For now though jump in the time machine and head back to the 90’s. - Dead End Hip Hop

Sounds Like: A ’90s theme song for your favorite Nickelodeon cartoon.
Feels Like: Watching the clouds go by as you lay in the grass.
Tastes Like: A bottle of Sunkist and a pack of Starbursts. - Okayplayer

If you’re a fan of the golden era of hip-hop, The Fifth Estate‘s Stuck In The 90s project might resonate with you. He doesn’t just stop with iconic hip-hop records, though. The Texas native makes it clear that gospel has been equally valuable in his musical journey, as he incorporates covers, samples, and reinterpretations of a few church pew classics. Fifth has always had a knack for supplying gorgeous harmonies to supplement his verses, and his singing meshes perfectly with the project’s easygoing, soulful production. It should come as no surprise that the project cover features Super Mario and Sonic. - Artistic Manifesto

El Paso native The Fifth Estate puts on for the Lonestar State with Stuck In The 90s. The 16-track mixtape is a hyper melodic collection of joints that showcase The Fifth Estate’s pen game. The mix is packed with Easter Eggs that throwback to sounds from A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Kanye West and more. One Man Jazz assists on cuts while Theloneliest Monk contributes on trumpet. - Okayplayer

The 26-year-old was born in California and raised an Army kid in Central Texas. Fifth made his way to El Paso four years ago after joining the military himself. Since relocating to El Paso, Fifth has been steadily working on and releasing music and performing at various venues around town.

He recently released his latest 10-song mixtape, "Stuck in the '90s," featuring his brand of laid-back, jazzy tracks. It's a collection of songs that pulls off the tricky task of simultaneously looking back at the era that shaped him, while also pushing forward and exploring new sounds, new flows and new experiences.
The Fifth Estate will celebrate the release of "Stuck in the '90s" with a '90s-themed party, Midnight Marauders (named for the influential 1993 album by A Tribe Called Quest). The party takes place at 9 p.m. Saturday at Prickly Elder, 916 N. Mesa St. DJ Jason Craig and others also will perform; '90s attire is encouraged. Admission is $3.

Listen to "Stuck in the '90s" at fifthfromthethird.com/.

Ahead of the mixtape release party, I asked Fifth for a list of his favorite '90s hip-hop albums.

Fifth: Yo, Chuy! (Fifth refers to me by my DJ alias, Chuy Vuitton). Here we go ... this was way harder than I thought it would be, because I wanted to pick albums that I actually knew. I can't order them, but here they are:

Eminem, 'Infinite'

Fifth: I love this album just because it’s young and unpolished Em. This is before the Slim Shady moniker and it’s just crazy raw. I feel like I can relate to this album because it was one of the things that got him noticed by Dr. Dre and what got his career moving. It doesn't have the same personality that we’ve all come to know, but it’s an interesting look back at his early emcee skills. The title track "Infinite" and "It’s O.K." are my favorites.

OutKast, 'ATLiens'

Fifth: I’m a lifetime OutKast fan. Andre 3000 is the actual GOAT (Greatest of All Time). "Elevators," "Mainstream," and "E.T." are some of my favorites from this album. I honestly didn’t really tune in to them until "Stankonia" (2000). "ATLiens" was solidifying their sound with that Organized Noize production and just being able to see (Andre) in all his eccentricity was uplifting to a young black kid that could relate more to his storytelling and quirky antics than anything.

Slum Village, 'Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1)'

Fifth: This was my first foray into a project produced by J. Dilla. It was just something about the way he arranged beats and the effortless, casual flow of Baatin and T3 over them. "The Look of Love" is not only my favorite SV song but one of my Top 10 Dilla beats of all time. "Keep it On," "Pregnant," and "Players" are also frequent go-to's.

Souls of Mischief, '93 'till Infinity'

Fifth: "93 ‘til Infinity" is my favorite hip-hop song of all time. Period. This album could be 14 tracks of the same song and I wouldn’t complain. I can’t even begin to count all of the top-tier emcees I’ve heard rhyme on this beat throughout the years. SoM are one of the groups that encompass that time in the '90s, when posse cuts and hip-hop groups were real powerhouses. "Never No More" and "Make Your Mind Up" are a close second and third. Word to Hieroglyphics.

A Tribe Called Quest, 'Midnight Marauders'

Fifth: I would be remiss if I didn’t put a Tribe album on this list. They've influenced so many of my records and have influenced my favorite rappers. "Electric Relaxation" is like the first ATCQ song I can remember knowing by name, mostly because of its inclusion on the opening sequence of "The Wayans Bros." "Award Tour," "Oh My God," and "Lyrics to Go" are some more of my favorites. Plus, the artwork is sick and I remember learning so much about hip-hop through its study. Long live the Tribe. - El Paso Times