Comedian Hannibal Buress has been in the studio for a minute now, creating music under the moniker Eshu Tune. And his latest song, “I Lift Weights” is a must-add to any gym playlist, or really any playlist that you listen to when you are trying to pick up something heavy.
If you haven’t listened to Buress’s music, you’d be pardoned for thinking it’s low-production value jokey-joke music from a comedian. But that’s far from the case. This latest release started as a creative exercise to shake the cobwebs out prior to starting a proper studio session, but morphed into an actual, multilayered track, complete with a guitar solo, choir, and a bench-press-boosting sample chopped from retired Pittsburgh Steeler Joe Haden.
The track features some ambitious workout programming. “20 sets of 10, double up the reps, then I go again,” raps Buress. Worth noting: he's lying. Buress does not in fact lift weights. However, as he told GQ, he did hold two 15-pounders while recording the track.
By Buress’s estimation, more people worked on this song than any other track he’s made in the past. There’s his go-to producer, TK, as well as producer-slash-musician Preach Balfour, who’s worked with artists including T-Pain, Drake, and Beyoncé. There’s Drum Smoke on percussion. (This wasn't the first time he's pulled in heavy-hitters: there was also the time he got rappers Paul Wall and Danny Brown on “Veneers,” another timely song about now-ubiquitous cosmetically enhanced pearly whites.)
As Buress was working on the song, he received some unfortunate news. First, an acquaintance sent a text, wishing good energy to Buress and his family. It was 7 in the morning, and Buress says he assumed the sender was on molly. But then a family member checked in to see how Buress was doing. “I put two and two together, and ‘Oh, Grandma must be dead,’” he says. His 94-year-old grandmother had in fact passed. When he returned to the track, something felt off. His next studio notes? “How the guitar is right now, is not making me forget my grandma’s dead. We need to get some shredding on this bitch, so I can grieve better,” he says, laughing.
Enter guitarist DJ Williams—who’s jammed with legends ranging from Dave Matthews to Slick Rick—who provided a riff that comes in with the choir, right at the point you’ll want to time your 1-rep-max.
Though Buress didn’t set out to make the next iron-chucking anthem, it does serve as “good brainwashing” to keep fitness top-of-mind, especially as a new father. “I got a two-year-old, man. You don’t want to be an obese out-of-breath dad out here,” he says, noting that dealing with a toddler requires mobility, strength, and agility.
In between studio sessions, which take place in a soundproof studio devoid of natural light, Buress gets creative with his exercise. When he’s playing Rocket League, a popular game where you play soccer with cars, Buress will take the opportunity during the goal replays to get in a quick set of push-ups, jumping jacks, or squats. He says you do that for an hour and you’ve got a solid workout.
But he doesn’t see himself as a fitness influencer, and in fact, finds their advice to be somewhat redundant. “I think ultimately, everybody know what the fuck they’re supposed to be doing” in the gym, he says. But still, he sees value in the reminder: “That’s why NBA teams got coaches.”
