Tes

Born Terrence Tessora in Brooklyn, New York City, the rapper Tes first felt compelled to make music upon encountering Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” during a visit to an ice skating rink. After trading casual rhymes with acquaintances, he began composing original material and soon partnered with the Brooklyn-based VF Productions to issue the understated EPs Take Home Tes and Sound Investments. His 2003 debut album paired an apparently nonstop delivery with largely minimal underground hip-hop beats. Conceived under the working title Off On Mondays to mark the weekday he skipped employment in order to lay down tracks, the record instead appeared as X2—pronounced “times two”—a nod both to his dual responsibilities as MC and producer and to the repeated initial in his name. The chosen title carried an additional mathematical allusion, and the packaging included an elaborate, seemingly indecipherable equation. Drawing from ordinary routines, Tessora filled his tightly wound verses with everyday observations; on “Fool Time” he cautioned, “Don’t watch the clock/It’s a waste of time,” adding that “even if they pay you/don’t make it by nine.” A separate cut bore the plain title “Late To Work.” By contrast, the MC sounded most buoyant on “New New York,” a piece addressing life in the city after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center; the sharply chosen samples aimed to offset prevailing gloom. Additional contributors included Japanese beatboxer Afra on “Big Shots,” producer DJ Ese on “Say When,” and Lo Deck on “Late To Work.”