Derrick McElroy, AKA Black Aesop, poses in front of a bowl of tonkatsu ramen. Photo by Edward Smith

Where hip-hop artist Black Aesop started his music on the streets, scratching out a living through grassroots marketing, Bay Area native and Fresno rapper Derrick McElroy is now doing the same with his food.

The Business Journal reported last year that McElroy, whose stage name is Black Aesop, was producing his own cooking show, combining his musical chops with his culinary ones. Now, he has seven episodes and a food truck ready to premier in the coming weeks.

Hip-hop is changing, said McElroy, who has been cooking since he was a kid and rapping for almost as long. He started out alongside other independent rappers in the group Living Legends. He and artists such as Murs, The Grouch and Eligh would stand outside record stores, selling their own homemade albums for $5 or $10 to spread their name.

Sean Daley, or Slug, of the hip-hop group Atmosphere, and the guest for McElroy’s first episode of Aesop’s Tables, talks about how artists like himself and Aesop worked hard to sidestep the process of working with record labels. When Slug came to town in March and performed at Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co., McElroy sat down to discuss issues from the differences between music and comedy acts to the best places to hide during the zombie apocalypse. One recurring theme was being an independent artist and surviving. These rappers “are the people who had no desire to make demo tapes and send them to studios,” Daley says in the interview.

“It was almost out of the reach of any artist,” McElroy said. “Like if you didn’t have a label behind you, you weren’t releasing anything.”

Things haven’t changed for independent artists. His records on Spotify might get him a penny in royalties, McElroy says. Because of streaming, album sales are a thing of the past.

“It’s more about being out there,” he said. “We made more money performing than we ever did with record sales.”

Cooking will become part of the “spectacle” to drive people to his concerts.

He cooks with guests, and in one episode, he even takes Corey Scoffern — otherwise known as The Grouch — to the Fresno Grizzlies’ Taco Truck Throwdown event.

But with the saturation of media online, it takes a personality to break through and be successful.

Using “what little fame” he has gave him chances to sit down with visiting artists such as Fashawn, Murs and Hieroglyphics.

He’s using Patreon to fund the show and courting sponsors such as Tioga-Sequoia, HipHop DX, CMAC and even the Grizzlies to supply sets or equipment.

McElroy announced on Facebook that he would be adding a food truck to his performance. Dragging a trailer behind a van to cook from and serve food at concerts allows his fans to experience what they can watch him prepare on his show.

“Over these years, I’ve learned how to run my own business,” McElroy said. “The best way to make it happen is to have something no one else has.”

The first episode will premiere in early January, McElroy says.