GREENFIELD – It was a classic moment, just like in the movies: local resident Chris Elslager was driving when he heard his very own first song on the radio — streaming through YouTube.
“I was coming back from Walmart and I’m just driving down the road and the fourth or fifth song in, ‘I Might Be’ popped on,” he said. “It came up all by itself. It hit me pretty hard — you know in a good way. It’s like, ‘I just heard myself on the radio and I wasn’t looking for it.’ It was just a powerful moment.
Elslager, who lives in Arlington and has Hancock County ties, is getting a second chance to pursue his passion for music.
The 45-year-old rapper wrote and recorded his own album more than 20 years ago and got some local notoriety. But these days, the Internet and streaming services are working in his favor as his old songs are being distributed across Europe and Canada.
“It‘s so old that it’s brand new again. Time re-invents itself,” he said. “At the time, it was what everybody was doing but that got lost to history. I’ve just got that old school, grimy, backstreet basement beaten vibe.”
Elslager grew up on the east side of Indianapolis and says some of his first memories are of his grandfather waking him up with country music playing in the background. He dabbled with percussion and the viola. And he recalls in the sixth grade, a friend gave him a cassette tape with N.W.A. rappers.
“He said, memorize this verse and we’re going to do it tomorrow on the playground,’” he recalls.
His passion for rap music grew over time to where he recorded an entire album with 14 tracks. He won a talent contest at the Marion County Fair that was judged by rapper Common. He later opened for Rudy Ray Moore at a club in Franklin. He had a promoter at the time, but the album didn’t make it far — perhaps the music industry was saturated back then with similar acts.
“I have never stepped away from music completely,” he said. “I’m always creating, always writing. I can draw, I can paint. Music has always been my voice.”
Elslager went on to work what he calls blue collar jobs, operating a forklift. He and his fiancé moved 10 years ago to Southern Hancock County, and then five years later to Arlington.
“Five cats, two goats, two dogs – living the peaceful life,” he said. “I don’t get held up by traffic, I get held up by tractors.”
But he was recently contacted by family friend John Kleiman, who owns the Jingle Bell Rock music label. Kleiman, a local resident, recalls hearing Elslager when he was a teen, rapping while shooting hoops at his grandparents’ home.
“I said, are you still doing anything musically?’ He said, ‘No, I kind of walked away from that,’” Kleiman recalled. “I said, ‘What about that album you recorded all those years ago?’”
Kleiman sent the old album to Wolf Entertainment in Germany. From there, individual songs have been released to the European Indie Music Network. “I Might Be” was released to more than 800 radio stations to 60 countries in March; within the first week it hit No. 150, and it later peaked at No. 18.
Elslager’s second song “Relentless” was released in April, and his third, “My Apologies” will be released in May. His songs come up through streaming services and European vloggers have been interviewing him online.
Kleiman said this could be just the beginning: he would like Elslager to promote himself on social media and start performing live again.
Kleiman recently shot a promotional video of Elslager in April with the Hancock County Courthouse in the background.
Elslager, who still recalls that first day he heard himself streaming on YouTube, says he first told his fiancé Amber and then his 23-year-old son. He has family in Hancock County – many people know his cousin, “The Snow Artist” Rick Horton.
Elslager plans to get married this fall and see what happens with his musical career.
“It’s always better to strive and fail than it is to not try at all,” he said. “I’m just thankful for what I have now at this point; I never thought this would be possible.”
