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Artist
PICNICTYME
12+ albums
chillouthip hopbeats
about
Richard Escobedo—better known as PICNICTYME—has no shortage of talents. An MC, singer, photographer, musician and video director, Picnic has gained renown as one of the most eclectic hip-hop beatmakers in his home city of Dallas. And when he’s not in the studio crafting records for local heroes A.Dd+ and national acts like Kid Cudi, you can find him on stage playing percussion for Erykah Badu. Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, two hours north of Dallas, Picnic learned to play drums at age 11 and, at 18, he self-released his debut single “Roll With Me” through his own Oven Records. Initially going by Esco, he eventually came to embrace “Picnic,” the unusual childhood nickname given to him by his uncle. “He smoked a lot of weed, and he’d call me and my cousins really weird names,” Picnic recalls of his uncle Freddy “There was Stuffy, there was Poofaloo, Onion, Maffeo…” After relocating to Dallas to study film at the Art Institute of Dallas, Picnic got job as a videographer and photographer, even working as the cameraman for the syndicated reality show, Cheaters. At the same time, he was honing his skills as a beatmaker, and in 2006 he teamed with rappers Picasso and Tahiti to form the group PPT. Although PPT’s lifespan was brief, the leftfield trio—in which Picnic acted as both producer and MC—had a major impact on Dallas’ then- conservative hip-hop scene. “We kind of embraced a quirky feel—that Pharcyde meets De La Soul vibe,” Picnic recalls. He was able to put his vi
