Kool E

Ask around, & you’ll pretty much find that most emcees’ in Detroit know the name. Kool ‘E’, Born Eugene Jordan, started developing his writing skills throughout middle school. By the time he reached senior high, the 30 year old from Detroit’s Westside/Linwood area had come to make a name for himself in many freestyle ciphers.

Attending Murray-Wright high school, ‘E’ would soon find as a freshman that it was time to show & prove once word got out that you thought you had skills. “As a new student, I would see the freestyle battles in the lunchroom, but mostly kept to myself,” ‘E’ says. But one momentous day, while in the cafeteria, ‘E’ would be called out by a well-known emcee, who was a sophomore at the school. “Another student came to me & said, my man over there said he heard that you rap” ‘E’ recalls. It wasn’t a battle, but the other emcee was so impressed by the freshman, he asked him to join the group.

Two groups, & fifteen years later, fate finds Kool ‘E’ & Youn’ Gie (the sophomore student), still living & breathing music. The two has since dissolved the hood famous group, Hip –Hop Bishops, & are currently doing solo projects. “We had at least five demos’ recorded from ’89 to ’96. Our last album as a group was a project we called Graveyard, which would’ve been a compilation type album,” ‘E’ states.

‘E’ says of his music, “my music is from the heart, nothing is falsified. I’m all about making a change in people through my music.” ‘E’ has a currently released EP entitled Street Literature & is working on a full length release.