Detroit based emcee Elzhi entered the hearts of hip-hop heads around the world as one-third of the hip-hop trio Slum Village. Despite releasing music prior to joining the group, Elzhi slowly became one of the most recognizable and loved members of the group following that of legendary producer, J.Dilla who had left the group prior to Elzhi’s entrance.
Over the years, Slum Village ultimately shifted with the new members—Illa J (brother of J.Dilla) and the untimely passing of member Baatin in 2009. Upon releasing their sixth album, Villa Manifesto, Elzhi left the group for reasons including Barak Records owner RJ Rice, and etc. Leaving the group didn’t set Elzhi back any as he went to release his project Elmatic, which pays homage to the iconic debut album Illmatic from legend Nas. Elzhi was not necessarily the first person to do a project attempting to pay homage to the album, however, Elzhi’s version has been the best to date. Not only is he an icon in his own right, but the project is driven by all the same elements that made Nas’ iconic—passion, lyricism, creativity, and he still managed to put some of his Detroit flavor into the project.
With that being said, on Friday January 27th, Elzhi bought Elmatic to Oakland’s New Parish for an intimate show opened by three different openers. The venue was a sausage fest with only a sprinkle of women, however, everyone was there for a great time. Bay Area based veteran DJ Mr. E, prepped the audience with what was to come—great hip-hop, he played everything from Wu-Tang to Mobb Deep, while audience members recited every lyric with friends as if they were quoting verses from the Bible.
The first opening act, Fresh Music, was a duo who told the audience that they were about progressing, and their music definitely coincided with that, exploring topics of the everyday struggle essentially, and how people all want some material gains in their version it was Jordans. During their set, local emcee, RGLND entered the stage with a Kanye West/Taylor Swift entrance, (reference here) and bought out Adrian Per for their version of Drake’s “Motto,” featuring all of them saying how it was on YouTube. It’s pretty safe to say that Adrian Per and RGLND like to switch up Drake songs shown with “Motto,” and “Make Me Proud (Remix),” featuring Nicki Minaj, however, with this interruption, they basically stole the set.
The second opening act, was emcee Truthlive who literally is the living truth. The emcee released his project, Patience, in 2010 and the project gained him a well-deserved buzz as it spoke of topics of George W. Bush’s presidency, and etc. The buzz eventually led Truthlive to get his video on MTV. He performed tracks from that project, however skipped my personal favorite, “Poetry In Motion,” but it was probably for good reason, too much men for the evening. Up next was female emcee Ms. Be, wasn’t necessarily what you think of when you think of a female rapper—she was pretty, and unlike a lot of female rappers she chose to follow the route of lyricism over over sexualized and raunchy subject matters. Ms. Be said that she wants to represent for the Bay Area being the Anti-Nicki Minaj, and honestly, if this energetic femcee is who we have representing us as a region on the female spectrum, we’d be doing pretty well or ourselves. The last opening act was Skynet. The hosts for the show, Floss One, said that this group is very Wu-Tang like, and that was a completely truthful parallel. The group, made up of four emcees definitely came out with lots of energy, and fresh dance moves via member Mad Flows who was doing some pretty entertaining dances on stage. These guys, definitely were the perfect finale openers for Elzhi’s entrance.
When Elzhi finally entered the stage he started performing tracks from Elmatic, right out the gate. The same people who were quoting tracks when Mr. E was spinning, were all doing the exact same thing when Elzhi went through the tracks from his Elmatic album. Elzhi gave the audience a spill about how he essentially cant forget where he came from, and started to do music from his previous projects: The Leftovers, and etc.
Elzhi’s set was pretty short, however, that worked as a testament to his legacy, and to how established of an artist that he is. A lot of artists in his caliber would have done loads of stuff from their discography to fill time, however, he did exactly what he should’ve—promoted his current work, plus did all of the additional tracks that everyone wanted to hear. Overall, a great show. Elzhi’s Elmatic, is available for free download here.
All pictures are courtesy DJ Harris, view her portfolio at www.djlan.tumblr.com
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