Eli Escobar

Eli Escobar is a musician and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. He builds compositions around vocal records and runs Night People NYC, a label that released his 2014 debut album Up All Night, which drew from disco and New York's musical history.

Eli Escobar built his practice on a hunt for vocal records—the voice, he insists, is the most emotive instrument of all. Growing up in Harlem in the '80s, he absorbed a wide range of music, and by the late 1990s, he discovered hip-hop during his senior year in high school, bought turntables, and produced his first 12-inch hip-hop singles within a year. His 2014 debut album, Up All Night, released through his label Night People NYC, distilled elements of disco into an accessible record that paid homage to New York's history. He co-runs Tiki Disco, a party he started in 2009 that now holds pop-ups globally, alongside residencies at New York venues Le Bain and Battlehymn. In his DJ sets, whether spinning house, disco, hip-hop, or electro, his taste for soulful vocals, emotive melody, and acid basslines consistently cuts through.