First things first. His name is pronounced chess-key. Ceschi Ramos is a rapper, singer, and song-writer based out of New Haven, Connecticut, who has been plugging away for the last twenty years. As a musician, Ceschi inhabits many different genres – hip-hop, folk, punk, indie rock, metal, you name it. As the owner of Fake Four Inc., he is one of the most diverse, musician-friendly label heads out there, who isn’t afraid to put out experimental sounds. But the real reason he is turning heads is because his sound deserves an adjective that is often thrown around but rarely truly warranted in music: original.
Having grown up just outside of Oakland, the core of Ceschi’s music is firmly rooted in hip-hop. However, the sounds and styles on his albums are an animal not so easily caged. To call Ceschi a hip-hop artist is to call a rainbow red.
Even from his first full-length release you get a good idea of the type of music Ceschi has set out to create. Released in 2004, Fake Flowers blends elements of hip-hop, indie rock, folk, and even Spanish, all while tossing in a fair amount of strange poetic ramblings. The album started as a noise tape and then slowly evolved into a conceptual album about childhood. Fake Flowers is an old, lo-fi, and at times, very weird record. And despite it being his weakest album, it allows for a good introduction to a man who prides himself on switching up his general sound on every album.
Following his debut, Ceschi released a record that confirmed him not just as a talented and diverse musician, but as an artist with a sense of purpose. 2006’s They Hate Francisco False blends together roaming melodies and punchy drums over heartfelt singing, folk ditties, and undeviating honesty. And yet amongst all the singing and weird stylings, there's still something essentially hip-hop about the album.
Shortly after releasing his second album Ceschi co-founded his record label, Fake Four Inc. with his brother, David Ramos. Founded in 2008, Fake Four started as an outlet for Ceschi and his brother to distribute their personal music projects and those of their friends. The music released on Fake Four generally falls under the categories of avant-garde indie rock/pop/folk and left-field hip-hop.
“We came out of the box swinging. Every album was a different genre. We put out stoner rock, crazy experimental punk music, hip-hop, and anything we felt like,” says Ceschi. “And then we realized, okay, our demographic, the people who follow Fake Four, like a certain thing. It’s still very loose. I’ll put out anything I think my fans might like. But it's naturally happened where we’ve gotten more attention with a certain sound.”
Since its inception in 2008, Fake Four has released the music of many prominent artists including Open Mike Eagle, Astronautalis, Bleubird, Awol One, and Factor Chandelier. The label has also released Ceschi’s last two albums, 2010’s The One Man Band Broke Up and 2015’s Broken Bone Ballads. As far as signing musicians goes, Ceschi prefers to find the artists rather than them reaching out to him.
“It’s very rare that I sign anyone that sends me demos. Please don’t send me demos. What I look for is an artist that’s pushing boundaries in some way regardless of genre and also developing their own fanbase. I don’t want work for you. I want to work with you. We’re doing this together and if you’re not working for yourself I can't fuck with you. That's pretty much where I’m at now. I really prefer artists who tour. I prefer artists who grind like me because I don’t want to be the only person selling records on this label.”
The One Man Band Broke Up is Ceschi’s first album to be released under his own label. The rapping on the album is impressive. Ceschi‘s voice moves back and forth from almost mathematical rhythms to aggressive punk. He displays his mastery of a variety of flows, furiously stacking syllables one minute and lagging lazily behind the beat the next.
Ceschi’s latest release, Broken Bone Ballads is no exception to his tradition of wild genre-bending. He plays his acoustic guitar and reminisces, philosophizes, spills personal confessions, and makes keen observations about the world humankind has shaped for itself. And the songs are made all the more effective by his vocal delivery, which jumps from very capable singing to well-composed raps and then back again. Being this type of artist is what makes Ceschi get away with not only combining acoustic guitar with synth and singing with rapping, but also making Thundercats, Jack Kerouac, and NWA references on the same album, and having it all flow together seamlessly and somehow make sense.
“It’s by far my most autobiographical work. I think I up until now I was hiding behind characters a lot more even though everything was still very personal. You know how Charles Bukowski or Hunter S. Thompson would write these fictional books that were completely based on their reality? That’s kind of what I was doing before and then with Broken Bone Ballads I was just like fuck it, I’m going to be very honest and write from my perspective.”
Helping shape Broken Bone Ballads was Fake Four’s own Factor Chandelier, who produced the album. It's a blatantly personal record full of progressive hip-hop and orchestrated folk tunes about years of broken bones, struggle, failure, death, court dates, prison, and loss, but somehow ends up being triumphant. It's a record that can be critical of human destruction, technology, and political structures, but ultimately speaks from a perspective of treasuring life.
“Today I learned that I wasn't built for the game. That I'd rather play floor gigs for forty kids than any fucking festival stage,” sings Ceschi during the opening of Broken Bone Ballad’s “Beauty for Bosses.” And anyone who has seen Ceschi perform live knows these lyrics to hold true. He will play his absolute heart for ten people, the same as he will for five-hundred. His voice is marked by a serrated edge, and he commands the stage with an erratic sort of energy. Known for using the entire venue during performances, he’ll be rapping on stage one minute and playing a Neutral Milk Hotel in the middle of the crowd the next. Other times, he’ll have the crowd follow him outside, or put his back against the bar for a sing-along. It's raw. It’s powerful. It’s pure energy.
“This is our tenth year so we’re doing a bunch of anniversary touring and are hoping to do some sort of festival in the fall back in my hometown New Haven, Connecticut. I’m just going really fucking hard. My plan is to tour until I’m near death and then take almost a year off and make a record. And I think it’s going to be my most ambitious record to date.”