Hysteria

SHE’LL HAVE YOU IN FITS OF…
HYSTERIA
FEMALE WICKEDNESS ON THE MIC
By David Friedman
FREELANCE MUSIC WRITER
Five songs into the recording of her first full-length album, Canadian-born female rap phenom Hysteria is excited about what she’s got in store for her growing fan base – a group of rap fanatics that already extends far beyond her hometown and region.
Hysteria, whose yet-untitled album is due to be released in the winter of 2002, is more than happy to talk about her latest tracks. Early songs titled “Fake Ass Friends,” “Conquer,” “Everytime,” “Evidently” and “Peeps” address the topics of being stabbed in the back when you least expect it, rising to the top of the rap game, partying hard, enduring the end of a relationship and staying in control, respectively. What’s more, Hysteria has already secured the production duties of legendary Detroit underground beat-maker and rapper Sol, a former member of House of Krazees and Halfbreed.
“My goal is, number one, to have my CD out, and secondly I’d like to do more shows in Ohio, Ontario and Michigan,” Hysteria said. “I’d like to expand my audience as big as it could be. I’d like to take the listeners I have now and double that in the next year. I just want to get my name out, spread the word.”
There’s no doubt that exposure and experience will bring Hysteria closer and closer to her goals in due time. Born Stephanie Esliger on Dec. 14, 1979 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Hysteria grew up with her homemaker mother and her stepfather, who works on the assembly line for Ford Motor Company. “I grew up in the poorer part of the city,” Hysteria recalled. “I grew up in the projects. I’ve always lived in the west end of Windsor. It has a bad reputation. Probably about 10 years ago, there used to be a lot of robberies and a lot of fights in the high schools. And because there’s a lot of government-regulated housing, it kind of got a bad name from that.”
Make no mistake, however. Hysteria is the first to admit that her childhood was a good one. Her family wasn’t rich, but she had everything she needed. She remembers listening to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and pop music on the radio when she was 5. At age 11, however, Hysteria began listening to hardcore rap. “The first group I ever got into was Geto Boys,” she said. “My brother bought me the tape for my birthday when I turned 11. That was ‘We Can’t Be Stopped.’ It just came off to me really hard. It had a very scary root to it. It was just like scary music and I liked that. It was wicked, I guess you could say.”
By the time she had turned 16, Hysteria was hooked on rap music for good. Her favorites included 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Lil’ Kim and underground Detroit acts Insane Clown Posse, Esham and House of Krazees. The Detroit connection is no surprise when you take into account that Hysteria grew up within a few miles of Detroit. Her biological father, a repair store owner, lives and works in the Motor City. And Hysteria has enough family in Michigan that she can easily call it her second home. “I’ve been going to Detroit since I was a little kid,” she said. “I like the architecture and I love the city.”
Hysteria, who has three brothers and two sisters, is the youngest child in her family by four or five years. While Hysteria was attending J.L. Forster Secondary School on Windsor’s West End in 1995, she learned that her 23-year-old brother Bill had died in a head-on collision in Florida. To this day, she thinks of him from time to time and wonders what could have been. Soon after, in August 1996, Hysteria’s friend was pulled in by the undertow in a Detroit river and drowned. The two events were a lot to take in at the time. “I was a very angry teenager,” Hysteria said. “I wouldn’t say I was mad my whole life, but basically the music I was listening to was hard. If it was rock it was hard; if it was rap it was hard. I had issues with my real father. I would say from 15, 16 up, I was pretty angry.”
Hysteria was 18 when she decided she wanted to rap in 1998. She began writing rhymes and freestyles with her friends and even recorded tracks at home. Hysteria and Windsor rapper Keyz took a trip to a studio on the west side of Detroit and began recording with a production company called Goodlife. Hysteria saved money to buy studio time and recorded her first three songs, including an early version of “Talk Shit,” with producer Mr. X. “You always know people who talk shit,” Hysteria said. “I don’t know one person who never knew someone like that. I had some drama in my life and I didn’t want to hurt someone for real, so I turned it into a song.”
Unsatisfied with laying down her vocals over club beats, Hysteria switched producers after meeting up with Sol at an in-store autograph signing in October 1999. “It was cool,” Hysteria recalled. “It was a relief, actually, because at that point I knew I was gonna have some sweet beats. He does some of the best beats I’ve ever heard. I dig the shit out of them. I think some of the beats were just meant for me to spit on.”
A month later, Hysteria entered Sol’s famed studio, The Chamber, to begin recording tracks for her first official release, the “Hysterikal” EP. The album came out in August 2000 and featured seven tracks, including a remake of “Talk Shit” and “Deceitful,” which is about an ex-boyfriend who lied to Hysteria. “Confession” addresses the rapper’s suicidal feelings following her grandmother’s death in 1996. “Female Wickedness” is a track that establishes its title as Hysteria’s patented slogan, while “Ain’t Around” is about longtime friends drifting apart.
“I rap about what I see, situations that I’m faced with or that others are faced with,” said Hysteria, who has performed at shows in Michigan and Ohio and has collaborated with Halfbreed. “I don’t care what the topic is, I’ll say something about it. I don’t give a shit. I do shows and I’m not afraid to get in people’s faces. On my last CD, I was just inviting you in; on this new CD, I’m commanding your attention. Now I need it. That’s what I want. Because I have something to say to everybody. I have a message about a lot of things going on in my life. All these songs, people can relate to them because they’re reality based.”