Beginning his rap career at the turn of the 90's, Everlast (real name Erik Francis Schrody) certainly didn't achieve success immediately and his début album “Forever Lasting” failed to get as many sales as expected. But since joining up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the group House Of Pain, he has managed to get respect as their front-man. House Of Pain are most well known for their self-titled album, which went multi-platinum, and also for their most recognisable hit "Jump Around", where Everlast features prominently on vocals.
Erik departed from the band on the same day they released their third and final album "Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again" to continue his work as a solo artist. His second studio album "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" proved to be a massive improvement from his first release, selling over three millions copies and going double platinum in the process.
None of Everlast's following solo albums proved to be as successful as his second, but he did hit the top 50 with the albums "Eat At Whitey's" released in 2000 and the more recent "Songs Of The Ungrateful Living". Everlast once again teamed up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the hip hop supergroup La Coka Nostra alongside Ill Bill and Slaine. They gathered huge respect from the rap community following the online releasing of singles and eventually made an album which featured the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bun B and Immortal Technique.
Erik has now moved away from hip hop since starting his own label Martyr Inc. and has been known to experiment with a more bluesy and relaxed style, shown by some of the releases from his most recent albums.
Getting me to go to an Everlast concert was extremely similar to my friend getting me to go see the Insane Clown Posse concert. They both have one thing in common, which is a history of beef with Eminem. Eminem is my favorite musician of all time, and if it weren't for him beefing with Everlast, I honestly would never have heard of him.
I listened to every diss track Everlast made towards Eminem, and every diss track Eminem responded with. Even though I was 100% on Em's side, I have to admit that Everlast is a really, really good lyricist and musician and, even though he wasn't rapping at the show, it still showed in his music.So, 2 of my friends went to see him in concert. The crowd wasn't that big at all.
There was maybe 150 to 200 people there, which is understandable considering, well, not many people know about him! One of my friends was expecting him to rap because he was familiar with his history with Em as well, but I knew he had given up rap a good bit ago and was now a country singer. Small crowd aside, the concert was still great. The stage was kind of small, and most of the space was taken up with the drums, band members and band equipment. Everlast was mostly stationary in front of the mic, doing his thing. He has a great voice. It was really enjoyable seeing how he turned out. We had a really good time, as did everyone in the crowd.