Unsigned Hype: Fesu

Fesu of Houston, Texas, was featured in the Unsigned Hype column in the May 1993 issue of The Source. Fesu, who got his stage name by spelling his first name Yusef backwards (obviously Fesuy was not a less desirable option), had already made a name for himself around the Houston area with his single "Streets of Greenspoint", a song about the area where he and his group The Jump Out Boyz came from. Fesu "sticks to his tracks with a unique slow flow and a southern drawl", which is guaranteed to "catch all kinds of ears". Apparently Fesu didn't hold back on his demo, as it only took a few tracks for writer Matty C to declare that Fesu "raps with one of foulest mouths [sic] to touch a microphone". His song "Goose Bumps" is "up there" with songs such as "Gangster of Love" by Geto Boys and "She Swallowed It" by N.W.A. Another track, "Blind, Cripple and Crazy" shows that "Fesu can get deep too". Fesu was funded by Houston Oilers players Marcus Robinson and Darryl Lewis for studio time, and he and producer TK completed over "thirty songs" together. In what is by far the most bold statement I've seen so far in an Unsigned Hype column, Matty C concludes that "some of the production on this demo is in a class with "My Mind Is Playin' Tricks on Me" and "Ain't Nuthin' but a G Thang". Even though Fesu "might ... have some flack for being so explicit", "he may be looking at a fat deal" if "things go right".

In 1993, Fesu released his debut EP, Blind Cripple and Crazy, on New York-based label Fang Records (their only other release being a single by the group No Concept). The EP featured both songs mentioned on his demo tape, "Goosebumps" and the title track, as well as four new songs and a "Goosebumps" extended mix. Stunningly, the album received a four-mic rating in The Source magazine, only half-a-mic less than De La Soul's Buhloone Mindstate which was featured in the same issue.

Fesu then signed to Continuum Records, a subsidiary of MCA Records. He released his debut studio album, War with No Mercy, in 1994, which featured both songs mentioned on his demo. "Blind, Cripple & Crazy" was additionally released as a single. Fesu released a second album in 1996 on Albatross Records, titled Life Goes On, and a third in 1998 on Destiny Records titled The Game. His last appearance was in 2000 on the song "The Good Old Days (Remix)" by Bishop "Stick" Burrell on his album The Man and His Music. Fesu then disappeared from the rap game and hasn't been seen since. A short write-up in The Source's own Unsigned Hype retrospective in their January 1998 issue states that Fesu is "currently in the witness protection program".

It's been a long-standing controversy over Fesu's appearance in The Source, and there is a strong consensus that maybe there was some money exchanged to get the feature. I can't find this hard to believe, especially considering some of the outlandish comments made by writer Matty C that seem very forced in comparison to his previous write-ups on artists. In no other feature before this has anybody had their production compared to two of the greatest hip hop songs of all time, making the comment seem really out of place. To add further fuel to the flame, Fesu's debut EP received a prestigious 4 mic rating by The Source themselves only a few months later. Seven track EPs with a small cassette-only release on an independent label rarely, if ever, received such high ratings and even exposure (it was featured on the first page of the reviews section when it was published), and though Fesu was a decent rapper, the EP definitely was not "slammin'", which the 4 mics indicated. Fesu is an interesting case, and might have been the first involved artist in The Source rumours about paying for good reviews.