By TJ Love
Rap has been overrun by multisyllabic rappers more interested in adherence to rhyme patterns than saying some dope fly shit. This new wave is painting themselves into a corner with ChatGPT rhyme schemes over Boom Nap beats; one side slinging half-baked, meandering, incoherent street stories and the other side guilty of what Common once decried as “rhyming big words and not saying shit.” This is where most of present day underground and adjacent Hip Hop lies, with no mercy for our eardrums in sight.
Leave it to indie veterans Elzhi and Oh No to deliver weary rap listeners from the monotony with their joint project Heavy Vibrato. The dynamic duo first linked up on “The Great” from Elzhi’s The Leftovers Unmixed Tape, a dope track which gave us a peek at what such a pairing could offer. The fluidity of Hip-Hop lends itself to this type of prolific and easy collaboration of two masters, akin to jazz in its heyday.
In this latest outing, Jason Powers is John Coltrane at the height of his bebop peak, pushing his craft ever forward in a flow state (pun intended) that’s patently unfair to the status quo.
Oh No, Madlib’s little brother, does his part on the boards with a production style all his own. At times, Heavy Vibrato is a hazy; a little dusty, with generous jazzy phrasing on multiple instruments. This haze coalesces with assertive work on the drum kit that thumps, knocks, and swings with snappy snares that complement those moments when Elzhi gets busiest. Where Elzhi was doing breezy, laid back Tai Chi over Georgia Anne Muldrow’s production on Zheigeist, Oh No’s sonic landscape allows him the path to go harder than Ip Man on a Wing Chun dummy.
“Fireballs” is the first single, and it’d be a little too on the nose to say he’s throwing Akuma Gohadokens, but facts are facts. The single is accompanied by a Basquiat-esque animated short that’s a creative vehicle to visualize El’s bars. Elzhi renders a gestalt illusion with his syntax and wordplay; the type of art you’ve gotta revisit to catch everything being conveyed even though you are rocked by his trademark punches.
“Bishop” is yet another brilliantly executed concept song by Elzhi, up there with Lead Poison’s “Hello” and The Preface’s “D.E.M.O.N.S”. He’s rapping from the perspective of 2pac’s character, Bishop, in the movie Juice. Weaving a reinterpretation of the classic film from the perspective of one of the most memorable villains in Black cinema, Elzhi captures and extrapolates the thought process and emotions of Bishop to the smallest detail, yielding a greater understanding of the character. This level of insight and analysis of Pac’s complicated antagonist can’t be found in the Ivory Tower of academia or film school.
Numbering twelve tracks, Heavy Vibrato has four features, but Guilty Simpson kills on “RIP (Radio International Programming)” with a sixteen that burns up the booth. He spits one of the better verses of 2023, triggering flashbacks to the Random Axe era, not just holding his own as a wingman, but leading the team in scoring. “Trick Dice” is another standout track that’s a clever flip of one of Swifty McVay’s lines on D12’s “Devil’s Night,” while “Smoke” features Elzhi masterfully out-rhyming featured rappers on the song, including Blu.
The Syllable Sensei’s ability to spit high octane oratorical daisy chains remains. Way back In 2008 Detroit Hip-Hop legend Hex Murda said it best, “N*ggas need to take notes, n*gga. Throw your old writing tablets away, n*gga. Throw your MPCs up on eBay. Just listen, n*gga, be a fan. This shit is real…Elzhi, that n*gga is better than you, n*gga. Elzhi is better than you.” Elzhi is really ‘Him’, ‘That Guy’, and anything else anybody ever comes up with. Heavy Vibrato is more evidence of this.
Rating 4.5/5
