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This Issue 02/22/2007

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Josh Smith, a senior film major at Drexel and one of Sean's producers, remains impressed to this day with his friend's abilities. "He can form armies of people to do things with him." He chuckles before adding, "He has so many ideas . he pulls things out of his hat. There's got to be some secret recipe . either he has a closetful of slaves or he's a sorcerer."

On Penn's campus today, you'll find students sporting black and white Koherent T-shirts. They go to his parties, listen to his music, and some even give time and energy to help build his vision. But you would never suspect that the mellow, mild-mannered student in your finance class was the brains behind popular Thursday night parties at Shampoo Nightclub, and his own hits like "Ring the Alarm."

Recently Sean ceded some control of Koherent to CEO Kevin Banks, in an effort to focus on his own music. He's been composing and singing for various audiences since high school, but only recently has he achieved wider visibility. "Touch" will be his first song to be produced as a music video.

If all goes according to plan, this track should be the one that brings EsKoh to the mainstream.

* * *

At Au Bon Pain, Sean answers e-mails on his Treo and adds cream and sugar to his tea with the same confident motions. Josh Smith soon appears.

Sean met Josh freshman year at a prayer meeting, and more recently they've teamed up for the "Touch" music video. Josh is serving as director and writer. Gangly with wire-rimmed glasses and a mop of light brown hair, he is just as unassuming as Sean.

We walk a few blocks to where Sean's shiny black Hummer is parked. As we drive away from Penn's campus, he puts in a CD. Songs like Ne-Yo's "Sexy Love" and Busta Rhymes' "Touch It" fill the car. Sean turns to me as he pulls onto I-76, "I'm picking my set for Friday." Friday, Sean will perform at 8th Street Lounge.

The plan is to perform a few mainstream songs, before turning to his original material. Cedric Hall, Sean's producer and choreographer from Temple University, explained it to me later, "He has to kind of prove that he's down with popular music, you know? Gives him credibility."

In the driver's seat, Sean manages to study song lyrics, ad lib harmonies to the thumping music, and talk on his Treo at the same time. His voice, pure with a high range, is mesmerizing above the general noise in the car.

It's 6:45 p.m. Sean is headed to his producer, Jarren "J. Dunny" DuPree's house in Southwest Philly.

The studio is in DuPree's basement. Chairs and couches line the walls, with the recording equipment on one side and Dunny's piles of laundry on the other.