Wow. I hate that I've known Elucid for the better part of 2 or 3 years, but there is still some of his catalogue that I've never heard. I let him know that I hadn't heard his Progress mixtape, which was made during early 2003 and 2005, and released before Smash N Grab, and he finally laced me with the .zip, and now its on YOU! While his potent poetry and flawless flow are still in tact, the beat selection was a bit "safer": he murders Slim Thug's "Life A Boss", rediscovered Beanie Sigel's "Purple Rain" and coasted over a host of original production from niggas like Imported Goodz. I've always appreciated his leftfield flex over modern Hip-Hop, but its been his post-Smash N Grab material, where he's dabbled in dubstep, punky-electro and other BPMs that I really understood where he was. His G is truly too futuristic for some niggas...DOWNLOAD Elucid The Progress Mixtape
And this is where I go into what we call the "real talk" portion of our seminar. See, this cat Young H of Go In Radio did a dope tribute to Lessondary (download this trip back HERE), where he included the title track of this mixtape, and not much else from Elucid. That seemed odd, and when he got into his own commentary towards the end, dropping what I guess he thought was constructive criticism? Check out the clip HERE. Now, fam, I understand that tracks like "Laser Days" and the other sounds Elucid dropped on the aforementioned Smash N Grab and his phenomenal Police & Thieves mixtape - I get that. But the fact that you pulled out the word "hipster" to describe it comes off as ignorant. Not ignorant like Soulja Boy, but ignorant in the literal sense of the word, i.e. you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. It's that mentality that helps crush proper independent Hip-Hop from the inside. Cats will forever talk about "keepin' the music pure" or whatever, but their reference points are The Native Tongues. Hip-Hop was born and dropping tracks like "Planet Rock", which is still a staple... and also helped birth genres like Electro! Now the dubstep used in "Laser Days" is closer to "Planet Rock" than most of the Hip-Hop I imagine you champion out there; this thing we know as Hip-Hop is just as much "Can I Kick It?" as it is "Walk This Way". Timbaland's BPM excursions and Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak are just as Hip-Hop as any Preemo beat Nas raps on. Just because its not YOUR view of Hip-Hop, why the fuck would you discredit Elucid's vision for his particular form of Hip-Hop? He's not saying his shit isn't Hip-Hop, so why are you? It's the ying and the yang - just because its not a dusty Madlib sample doesn't mean its any less Hip-Hop, and it for damn sure wasn't created to symbolize some hipster movement - it was a creative evolution from the tunes like "Progress" that you love! There'd be no Elucid now without Elucid then.
And for many of us out there, Elucid now is putting the proper lyrical slant on varying styles of music out there and - God willing - this vision will manifest itself. Shouts on your tribute, but fall back on the ignorant statements, homey.
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