Big L is my favorite MC of all time, but in his absence, I’m not sure there’s a rapper out there that I appreciate on a technical level more than Elzhi. The way he constructs each verse and flips these words together is insane, plus his flow is about as sharp as it gets. All this is on display in his new video for “Deep” off his Leftovers Mixtape. Shout to the homey Gerard on the direction as well.
Black Milk and Royce just dropped the visuals for one of the best songs of the past year, “Losing Out,” of Black’s Tronic project. Just as you’d expect from a Detroit video in the dead of winter, the D is looking real grimy here. My only complaint is that I would have loved to see the video ride out for the extra minute of the album version where Black absolutely murders the sample. Perhaps that would have been hard to match with images, but that might be my favorite part of the song itself. Either way, dopeness.
Shout to the whole D, particular Hex…the most entertaining person to follow on all of Twitter.
As I showed y’all yesterday, we’re snowed in here in Seattle and as a matter of fact, it’s even worse than it was during that video. I think we’re up to about half a foot of packed snow on the ground, with no signs of it letting up for the next few days. It’s really cool looking outside and fun to walk around in, but the downside is that I’ve been stuck around my house for 4 days straight now. Wait…that’s probably not such a bad thing…I have good food, a warm place, football (and futbol!) on TV, and I’ve been able to finish up a ton of work. I take it back, this snow thing is kinda dope.
Well, aside from the fact that I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet and I’m suppose to be moving in 10 days. If I have to move my couch on ice skates, I’ma be very, very upset.
Anyway, in the meantime, I’ve been getting some old projects finished. Here’s some simple Flip Cam footage I grabbed of the homies Black Milk and Elzhi performing at the Red Bull Big Tune stop here in Seattle on 9/12/08. If you recall, we recorded a dope interview with them the day before, which you can still check out right here.
At the show, they ran through some of their illest songs, including “Sound The Alarm,” “Motown 25,” “Hiding Place,” “1, 2,” and more. If you’ve never seen Milk and El rock live, you’re missing out.
A few months back, J. Moore and the rest of the Red Bull Big Tune fam brought Elzhi (of Slum Village) and Black Milk to the town for the Seattle edition of the beat battle. Before tearing it down at Neumo’s that night (I’ll toss some of that footage up if I get time), they came through Sound Session to record an interview with us. Unfortunately, since we’ve had so many guests coming through lately, it’s taken a minute to get the audio up for y’all. Better late than never though, especially when you’re dealing with two of the dopest artists in the industry right now. I don’t think anyone is seeing Elzhi bar for bar, and with the release of Tronic, Black has staked his claim for the top MC/producer out there. Seriously…do you hear how he’s spittin’ on that album?
Anyway, the interview was recorded in between the releases of Elzhi’s The Preface and Black’s Tronic, so there are a few occasions where it sounds dated. Even still, I highly recommend checking out the full discussion to hear them break down both projects in detail. They also talked about their inspirations both past and present, their creative processes, all things Detroit, what changes they hope Barack can bring to the people, their upcoming work, and much more. Enjoy!
It’s been a while since I archived Sound Session immediately following the show, but I figured I’d toss the latest episode up for y’all before I crash. That said, I’d prefer not to start off my week with no sleep, so I’ll keep this brief.
Special note: the full interview with Elzhi & Black Milk (aka “40 minutes of dopeness with two of the illest in the industry”) will is posted below. I aired a few snippets last night, but trust me, you’ll want to listen to the entire thing.
If there are any problems with the links or if you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and download links after every show, just shoot me an email,DJHyphen@gmail.com.
New visuals for the lead single off Black’s Tronic album, one of the best projects of the year and the CD currently holding my deck hostage. Go buy it. In the meantime, make sure you at least have this jawn:
Hmm, my first ever unaccredited WLotD. I don’t know who DJ Premier used for the cuts on the new Black Milk song, “The Matrix,” but one of the lines is absolutely horrible:
“You’re in my danger field like Rodney”
–????, scratches from Black Milk’s “The Matrix”
Anyone know who’s responsible for this wackness? He must be brought to justice.
The homey Tor just dropped a dope video for one of my favorite songs of the past year, “Switch,” off his Daily Conversation album. Shout to Black Milk on the beat. There are also a ton of cameos from great artists (check Marco Polo’s appearance in that Godzilla suit) and LOL @ Tor-Pac, Lil’ Tor, and Torminator X. Where was the Cam costume ’switch’ though?
