On “The Transition,” Elucid kicks things off with the following:
“Not guilty just paranoid blame it on the seminar/ Ultra analogue anonymous cult conglomerate/ Dominant digi connect ignore the obvious/ Survivalist zombie Yahweh sloppy mess/ Molatov’ll clear the deck/ Order step pork possess morbid stretch mark for death…”
These are not the lyrics of one who has merely “got bars,” as the saying goes. These are the words of a man an entity that — in the span of one year so completely and severely bodied everyone around — can now move freely about the artistic realm without worrying about rank and file. Tiny Mix Tapes gave Race Music a 3.5/5 rating, which should’ve been a 5.5/5, but it doesn’t even matter because well…
Let’s bring it back for a minute. In December 2012, Elucid dropped “Bird Eat Snake // The Love Offering,” a 56-minute mix that has aged better than most solo albums of 2013. In March 2013, he and A.M. Breakups released the long-anticipated Cult Favorite album For Madmen Only, which, though mostly overlooked by the masses, will probably have a lasting influence on everyone who actually took the time to listen to it ala Velvet Underground and Nico (and no, I don’t have any qualms about comparing Elucid to Lou Reed, nor should I).
For much of the rest of the year, Elucid continually teamed with billy woods, perhaps his only true “peer” in terms of pure verse-writing ability. After laying a few show-stopping 16s and surprisingly catchy hooks on Dour Candy, Elucid upped the ante on the Armand Hammer mixtape Half Measures before deftly transcending space and time on Race Music. On these latter releases, it should be noted, his rhymes owe as much to Harlem Renaissance-era storytelling as they do Black Bastards-era Zev Love X.
Which brings us back to “The Transition,” on which Elucid also spits, “The transition destined God’s witness/ Melanin sun blistered can’t lends the afflicted victim/ A helping hand generation by the grand/ Guns, Germs and Steel you still don’t understand.” And he’s right. You really don’t. But at least you can download “The Transition” below and play it on repeat until you think you might.
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