Richard Escobedo—better known as Picnic Tyme—has no shortage of talents. An MC, singer, musician, photographer and video director, Picnic has gained renown as one of the most eclectic beatmakers in his home city of Dallas. And when he’s not in the studio crafting records for local heroes A.Dd+ or playing percussion for Erykah Badu, you can find him working on his first solo EP, Sea Monsters.
Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, two hours north of Dallas, Picnic learned to play drums at age 11. 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 puffed that ‘magic dragon’ and called me and my cousins really weird names,” Picnic recalls of Freddy, “there’s Stuffy, Foofaloo, Onion, Trompas…”
After relocating to Dallas to study film at the Art Institute of Dallas, Picnic worked as a photographer and videographer, even working as the cameraman for the syndicated reality show, Cheaters. At the same time, he was honing his skills as a a music producer, and in 2006 he teamed with rappers Pikhasso 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 embraced a quirky feel—that Pharcyde meets De La Soul vibe,” Picnic recalls. He was able to put his visual talents to use in PPT as well; the group shot a video for each song on their debut Tres Monos in Love, and made a movie based on their second and final release, Denglish.
After PPT disbanded, Picnic landed production placements with Texas heavy-hitters Devin the Dude, Scarface and others. He also connected with fellow Dallas producers S1 (co-producer of Kanye West’s “Power” and Beyonce’s “Best I Never Had”) and One Self (of Verbal Seed) to form the production unit Cassette Union. Through S1, Picnic came to know Erykah Badu, who recruited him to join the Cannabinoids, an improvisational beatmaking troupe, separate from her road band, that backs Badu live. “We thought it was gonna be this one off thing,” Picnic recalls of his work with the Cannabinoids, “but then she found out I had skills outside of making beats, and also that we have the same exact birthday.” For the past year, Picnic has traveled around the globe with Badu as the photographer and videographer for her tours, and even played percussion.
Picnic’s latest accomplishment is producing and engineering rap duo A.Dd+’s entire When Pigs Fly LP, an eclectic masterpiece that belongs near the D.O.C.’s No One Could Do It Better in the annals of great Dallas rap albums. “I was in search of something that would make a splash and set a foundation for me as a producer,” Picnic says of his connection with A.Dd+, a group in which he has become an unofficial third member. “I knew they had a truth to them and a lot of emotion that they wanted to get out. So that’s how I went into it as a producer—to make beats that brought out emotion, and really challenge them.”
Since the release of When Pigs Fly, which has received accolades in national publications like XXL and is said to possibly be “the best hip-hop album Dallas has ever released,” by the Dallas Observer, Picnic has been in the studio working on upcoming EP Sea Monsters, an introspective EP that showcases his singing, rapping and production talents. “It’s based on the saying, ‘There’s always more fish in the sea,’” Picnic says. “But there’s also sea monsters in that bitch… I want the music to sound like you’re swimming in slow motion underwater. That’s the vision for the whole thing.”