But it inspired you to fight to better it or get out. It was not a pleasant place to be at the time, environmentally. ![]() What was it like coming up in that time and place? How did that environment shape ESG artistically? Growing up in NYC during the '70s put you right at the epicenter of the birth of hip-hop and other innovative musical movements like punk and no wave. James Brown definitely influenced the ESG sound. Renee Scroggins: We listened to James Brown, Motown, gospel, and jazz. New Times: What did you and your sisters grow up listening to? Is there any particular music you would consider a primary influence or inspiration on the sound of ESG? Ahead of this rare Miami appearance by a set of greats, we caught up with Renee Scroggins to find out more about ESG and its enduring musical legacy. And you can catch them doing their thing live at Gramps this Friday alongside the legendary Arthur Baker. ESG is alive and well - they even have a new album coming out this year. ESG's "UFO" would become one of the most sampled songs in history, making its way into records by everyone from TLC to the Beastie Boys.īut it's not all nostalgia for the band. They would also go on to work with legendary Factory Records producer Martin Hannett of Joy Division fame. They would go on to be signed by New York's seminal 99 Records, home to fellow post-punk dance pioneers like Liquid Liquid and Bush Tetras. Punk, no wave, electro, and disco were all being spawned in the surrounding boroughs as well, so it was basically the most creative time and place in the history of modern popular music.Īnd it was here that the teenaged Scroggins sisters - Renee, Marie, Valerie and Deborah - were honing their singular brand of brooding minimal punk-funk. But it was among its gang-ridden, dilapidated tenement blocks that hip-hop was born. ![]() The South Bronx was a war zone in the late '70s, as ESG's Renee Scroggins will tell you.
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