Eric McCall, also known as Legend N The Makin’, plans to kick off Homecoming weekend with a local performance and music video premiere.

McCall, a senior engineering and industrial management of technology major, released his debut album, “Honor the Truth” in May and will perform music from the album 9 p.m. Oct. 9 at The House Cafe, 263 E. Lincoln Highway. He also plans to release a music video for his song, “Casual Citizens,” over Homecoming weekend.

Northern Star: How would you describe your music?

Eric McCall: My music is very soulful. It’s real. All my music describes my life, my life experiences, what I go through every day and what the future holds. I’m really just a conscious underground hip-hop artist.

NS: Some of your music videos were shot around the NIU campus. Are you from the DeKalb area?

EM: No, I’m from Rockford. In my last video [for “I Never Changed”], I wanted to shoot it here so I could show my experiences in college exactly before I get out of here. I wanted to show that part of my life.

NS: What have you done in the past? Have you put out mixtapes or EPs?

EM: Yes … . In middle school [and] high school, we did rapping recreationally, just for fun, because we loved to do it. I have a group back at home and we’ve had mixtapes around locally and in high school … . Then when I got here and got more serious with my craft, I put out two mixtapes … now this is my official, all-original music project. So this is my first real album.

NS: You have an album out right now? What’s it called?

EM: It’s called “Honor the Truth.” You can find it on iTunes.

NS: When did it come out?

EM: It came out in May. It was like the very end of the spring semester … a lot of my friends were graduating and I wanted to put it out before everybody left.

NS: How did people respond to it?

EM: Man, it was so loved. A lot of people bought hard copies of it, a lot of people bought it digitally online. I’ve got video footage of people showing love that I still haven’t released yet. My hometown was really proud.

NS: Have you done shows in DeKalb?

EM: Yes, I’ve done a bunch of shows at organizations, variety shows, Apollo shows. Our newest show is coming up Homecoming weekend, Oct. 9. It’s gonna be at The House Cafe.

NS: Who else is performing?

EM: It’s gonna be a local NIU group called Legendary Circle, which involves me, Antone [Christian, also known as AC Noel], Legend Mane [Keith Winford] and another NIU student named Mike West [Mic We$t]. It’s gonna be live Oct. 9, 9 o’clock.

NS: What are you doing to prepare for the show? Are you going to do music from your recent album or will there be new songs?

EM: Each of us have 25-minute sets and that’s what we’re working on right now … we’re trying to get in order exactly what we want to do because this is kind of big for us … . Each of us are so creative; one of us wants to do a theatrical performance, one of us wants it to be real emotional. I also wanna preview maybe one or two new joints that we’re working on right now, and other than that it’ll mostly be my album.

NS: Do you think you’ll put out another album soon or wait a while?

EM: Since this album is still very fresh and new I’m gonna wait it all out, probably ’til the rest of the school year. I plan on beginning to work on a new project maybe [by the] end of spring because I wanna keep it going, but I want this one to marinate for a while so everybody can get used to it. I have another video that I just shot a couple weeks ago and I’m still promoting the album so that video’s gonna drop before Homecoming for sure.

NS: Homecoming for any reason?

EM: October’s a big month for me. It’s my birthday month. I always like to do something special for October and Homecoming’s a big event. [It] gets the students’ attention, so hopefully we can get a big crowd at our show on [Oct. 9], everybody will be having fun for the Homecoming weekend, and the video should be coming out. That’s just great promotion and perfect timing for me.

NS: Do you think people who like different genres will enjoy your show, too?

EM: Yes. From my standpoint, I feel like the genre of hip-hop is kind of scarce here. It’s not really big, especially in our community, and our goal was to really get you guys to listen to lyrics again, listen to music, feel and vibe the sounds. Hopefully people wanna check it out.