Description
Pressed Black Ice Colored Vinyl
Between paying his dues at Hip-Hop Shop, building a buzz from his Out of Focus EP, and enjoying more visible success after joining the renowned group Slum Village, Elzhi always had a one-of-a-kind penchant for lyrical wizardry. With multilayered rhyme schemes, uncanny metaphors, and inventive concepts, he persistently had a case as the most gifted rapper in his city — even when Eminem dominated the charts.
But even some of his most dedicated fans knew that he hadn’t crafted a legacy-defining album yet. Such records often come from pain, and in 2009, that’s exactly what he dealt with: his Slum Village groupmate Baatin suddenly died in July, longtime manager and Detroit rap impresario HexMurda suffered a nearly fatal stroke two months later, and he went through a messy public breakup with SV the following year.
In 2011, Elzhi fearlessly took on the biggest challenge of his career: remaking Nas’ GOATed debut album Illmatic in his own name. He enlisted four-piece band Will Sessions to put a live, vibrant spin to sounds originally crafted by producers like DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Large Professor, and demonstrated lyrical wisdom about when to maintain the original spirit of a song and when to switch things up. He conjures images of the blocks he grew up on with “Detroit State of Mind,” recounts a romance with a woman who had a traumatic childhood on “One Love,” and uses “Memory Lane” to take a nostalgic cruise through childhood connections before the pain from such reflections is too much to bear. The technical proficiency was potent as always, but emotiveness made Elmatic blossom: the wistfulness of his mother’s flowing hair before chemotherapy took it from her, falling in love with a woman he met in the mall, the palpable pride in the peaks and valleys of his city. It was a detailed, refined version of the introspection displayed on Out of Focus. Elmatic proved that Elzhi didn’t just have prodigious talent— he had a city to represent, and he had a story to tell. — William E. Ketchum III
Tracklist:
Side A:
A1. The Genesis
A2. Detroit State of Mind
A3. Halftime
A4. Memory Lane
A5. The World Is Yours
Side B:
B1. Represent
B2. Life’s A Bitch (feat. Royce Da 5’9”, Stokley Williams)
B3. One Love
B4. It Ain’t Hard To Tell
B5. Detroit State of Mind (Remix)
Album Specs:
This special edition reissue is offered for the first time as a single disc LP, and includes the bonus track remix of “Detroit State of Mind.”
The album is packaged in a classic tip-on style jacket, featuring a redesigned cover by Jelle Smid accompanied with a foreword written by renowned music journalist William E. Ketchum III.
Critical Praise:
“Who dares remake a classic? Detroit hip-hop mainstay and former Slum Villager Elzhi, that’s who” -XXL
“’Elmatic’ is a real blessing in times of wildly jumping kids-rappers, rapping over daffy synths-beats and being praised to the skies by clueless Leftfield-nerds.” -HHV Mag
“From the time Elzhi’s career began bubbling underground through his time on mainstream radio, listeners have known he was one of the best lyricists around.” -Billboard
“Detroit-based emcee Elzhi seems to have tackled one of the most esteemed LP’s rap has seen to date, and turned it into his own. And for once, the end result sounds damn good.” -HipHopDX
