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For the Bronx crew ESG<\/a>, another group formed by sisters \u2014 Renee Scroggins and her younger siblings Valerie, Deborah and Marie, along with a friend, Tito Libran \u2014 Lincoln Center was the far-off home of the New York Philharmonic, watched on PBS. Renee Scroggins, ESG\u2019s frontwoman, said the show next month will be the first time she has set foot in the space. (ESG has performed at Carnegie Hall, and in arenas like Barclays Center, opening for Robyn, one of the many acts that followed in its sonic footprints.)<\/p>\n ESG \u2014 it stands for emerald, sapphire and gold \u2014 was born as a way for the Scroggins girls to stay out of trouble, and its unique sound blended all the genres they were surrounded by in the Boogie Down borough, circa the late \u201970s and early \u201980s: punk, funk, hip-hop and Latin grooves. \u201cWe like to play music that makes people dance,\u201d Scroggins, 65, said, in a phone interview from her home in Georgia. Crafting the Lincoln Center set list for the group, which now includes her children, she had one mantra: \u201cYou should not be sitting in your seat.\u201d<\/p>\n Their joyful vibe was not always easy to come by. Her sister Valerie was once derided by a sound tech for drumming \u201clike a girl,\u201d Scroggins recalled. At another gig, \u201cshe beat that drum so hard that the stage started to come apart,\u201d Scroggins said. \u201cThose two stories go hand-in-hand in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n And even as its music became part of countless hits for others, ESG did not earn royalties, given the contracts the bandmates signed early in their career. (In 1992, they released an EP called \u201cSample Credits Don\u2019t Pay Our Bills.\u201d) They fought for recognition, too. Once, when they were performing the wordless, spooky \u201cUFO,\u201d \u201cI heard a kid say, \u2018They are doing Doug E. Fresh!\u2019\u201d Scroggins recalled. \u201cI said, excuse me, young man, Doug E. Fresh was doing ESG<\/a>. Get it straight!\u201d<\/p>\n Still, ESG remained true to their own path. \u201cThe whole course of our career, we stayed on independent labels, if not putting it out ourselves,\u201d Scroggins said. \u201cWe wanted to do it our way.\u201d<\/p>\n That ethos animates this Songbook series, its creators said. (It concludes with a performance by Ana Tijoux, the French-Chilean rapper, returning after a decadelong break.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n