Elzhi took a tremendous risk when he decided that his next project would be to give one of hip hop’s seminal albums a face lift.
I'm talking about Nas’ 94 release “Illmatic.” An album that rarely, if ever, goes unmentioned when listing off the most important albums in hip hop history. Hell, people that don’t even like rap love that album.
Rapper Elzhi of Slum Village, had a vision of paying homage to this standard while making it his very own, and with the help of my next favourite band, Will Sessions, backing him up on the tracks… one single listen of this mixtape demonstrates that Elzhi had no reason to underestimate his abilities, even for a minute.
This past gloomy Saturday afternoon, I decided it was time to give Elmatic a first spin.
I admit, I went into my initial listen weary of what was about to unfold, but by the time Memory Lane (a track I personally deemed as untouchable) flowed out my speakers and filled up all the air in my condo, a perma-ear-to-ear-grin had crept over my face.
By the time the instrumental break (and vocals by who, I swear to God but can’t confirm, is Raphael Sadiiq) on Life’s A Bitch boomed out… I was literally flying high on this mixtape.
Elizhi’s rhymes, whether rapping on growing up in Detroit or coping with an ailing mother, are clever and sharp in their delivery. This is no surprise, coming from an MC whose first paycheck in the rap game came from his flows on the late great J Dilla’s “Welcome to Detroit,” but what cements this tribute as a undeniable classic is El’s flow, harmoniously combined with The Will Sessions Band's fresh and unique instrumental twist of each of one of Illmatic's original tracks.
On Illmatic, then 20 year-old Nas describes a life of growing up in NYC projects, while simultaneously altering the sound of hip hop forever.
Illmatic came along at the birth of a 90s rap period, when groups like Tribe & De La Soul were breaking ground, pairing bass-heavy jazzy tracks and poignant lyricism to produce music that truly meant something.
The sound of Nas' Illmatic elicits an excitement in listeners that takes us back to a time when hip hop was doing the things that paved the way for all artists that have emerged since then. It carries us back to a watershed period when hip hop stopped being a fad, and morphed into a respected art form born in the streets.
On Elmatic, El masterfully plays with words on bar after bar, effortlessly demonstrating his strength as a lyricist and his undeniable talents in storytelling – his version of Memory Lane is an excellent testament to this. Whether it’s name dropping Langston Hughes during his aggressive rhyming on his Detroit State of Mind, or contemplating the "train of thought or mental plane" back to Memory Lane, Elzhi goes in on each verse with ferocity and holds his own against the heavy weight history behind each track he is rhyming over.
The idea of remixing a classic is more than 'old hat' in the world of hip hop; it's a fundamental building block of the genre.
But Elizhi’s concept and flawless execution of Elmatic is more than just the refurbishing of a classic album.
With Elmatic, Elzhi gives back to the hip hop world what Illmatic gave to it over 15 years ago. Plain and simply put: this mixtape reignites the fire Illmatic lit in ‘94 and gives us no choice but to recognize that something major is happening in hip hop all over again.
Hats off to Elzhi for using the old to teach us how to stay new.
No comments:
Post a Comment