Soldier Of Love: Mac Esposito

Mac Esposito says his passion for music started in the womb, while his mother was pregnant with him.

“She was a creative mind, she sang and I believe that her singing to me while she was carrying me inside of her was part of the musical development,” Esposito said. “In utero was the beginning.”

The 32-year-old from Pinole, California, says his musical heritage goes back to when he was a child receiving his grandfather’s clarinets. Throughout his life, Esposito has always been involved in the music world -- from playing for the elementary school band, to private music lessons, working at Fiat Music Company to going to college -- he is a musician through and through.

Esposito plays a variety of instruments, but primarily the standing bass. After studying under several big players in the jazz world, like Roger Letson and Seward McCain, he made his way to Reno, where he currently plays for the Peanuts Gang Trio.

Esposito didn’t stop at jazz though: he also raps under the alias, Tony Mac on SoundCloud. He released his EP “Birth of tha Mac” in March, where he raps about his journey with sobriety and triumphs in life. His song “early days” takes you through the ups and downs of friendships, living your best life, and the importance of art.

“I’ve always been rapping,” Esposito said. “Rap is the music of the people of the 21st century… everybody that’s living with today’s values of actual unity and being aware of the systemic racism, they like rap music.”

He says he wants to use his hip hop to spread awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement, in light of recent protests over the death of George Floyd and others. Floyd was a black man who was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Protests sparked across the nation in the weeks after, calling for an end to police brutality.

Esposito says in any of the jazz shows he played, he would try to educate his audience about the background of the music.

“I think that as a white male, as a jazz musician, I have to be very careful and articulate about the history and culture of the music that I play,” Esposito said. “I need to get my words in line before I can really come out with art that supports the cause.”

Esposito says he wants to use his musical career to bring people together. He believes music is one of the ways systemic racism can be disassembled.

“My job is to bring peace and unity,” Esposito said. “I’m a soldier of love.”

If you’d like to follow Mac Esposito, he also streams on Twitch and will be releasing beats for creators to use on SoundCloud. You can head to any of these links below:

Peanuts Gang Trio: https://www.facebook.com/peanutsgangtrio/

Duke Stew on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/dukestew20