Conventional hip hop logic holds that the DJ is enduring a long slow slide towards California Condor status. You could theoretically argue that things have gone downhill since Kool Herc essentially invented the genre. Serato has brought every amateur out of the Pioneer Speakers. Rappers can and do play live shows from CDs. Computer production […]

First the good. For those who appreciate art made with mathematical precision, Elzhi attacks with a PhD’s exactitude. He raps like a Tim Duncan bank shot, clean and fluid like he studied under Pete Newell. He owns the rap nerd lane because at their core, most rap nerds are purists. They are the equivalent of […]

Aaron Matthews slaughters clowns in his part of town. From his early work with the Breakfast Club to his solo work to Slum Village, Elzhi (born Jason Powers) has proved himself as one of the most gifted writers to pick up a microphone. Coming off what could be the last Slum Village album and about […]

Douglas Martin is the Tacoma Carl Craig.  You can’t speak about the once-mighty S.V. without referencing the tragedies. The rampant bootlegging, two dead members, and one ridiculously unnecessary Twitter beef, that’s helped  spoil the victory lap one of the olderground’s greatest rap groups. But before T3 and Elzhi were attempted to be brought into the […]

Somewhere, Jack White is smiling at the simile employed at the expense of his ex-girl, done  by fellow Motor City marvel, the ever quotable Elzhi. Around these parts, “higher than the jeans on Urkel,” remains the preferred way to describe interactions with the Bubba Kush, and on “Deep,” Jason Powers re-emerges from his slumber to […]

I feel comfortable listing Elzhi somewhere in the back half of my top twenty rappers currently working. Saying that does not make you a backpacker or into “boring hip-hop,” it means that you appreciate a guy who raps extraordinarily well. I’m not sure when that idea fell out of vogue.  I am sure that if […]