What is Elucid talking about? "I Told Bessie" review

[@matthewslpz]

Alchemist isn’t part of Armand Hammer! Haram was his only album with them. Armand Hammer have many albums without Al

[@professorskye]

My bad! I’ll pin this comment.

[@willn8136]

alchemist isn’t part of armand hammer btw, he only teamed up for one album

[@MattTheMaestro]

To put it into perspective, E L U C I D’s grandmother is Bessie, she died in 2017, this album comes with intention of explaining the times when he lived with his gmother and when she could hear when he was rapping, or as E L U C I D put it ‘she heard all those spells being cast’ (spells, hexs, and potions are reoccurring topics) This album observes black culture and suffrage with very spiritual and visceral lyrics, which seems somewhat profound considering most people try to combat these societal issues and dealings with very empirical cerebral thoughts (you could almost say this is Athiopes turned on its head with the way it deals with reality of loss and wrongdoing).

[@professorskye]

Great points. Thanks.

[@MattTheMaestro]

@DonTa you’re absolutely right about the dynamic on E L U C I D’s side, my favorite line of the year has to be the intro verse to Jumanji when he says “imagineering crack out the nest egg” the real world implications to that give me chills, but perspective fs.

[@sucioization]

Really interesting interpretation. Thanks for sharing!

[@keontesealey1870]

Spelling is spells. Music is chants. This album is an ode to Bessie. And specifically the Bessie's in our lives. Ode to the Ancestors !

[@andrewtrott7844]

“My new name colonizers can’t pronounce”

[@professorskye]

If the buckled shoe fits.

[@Secondplanetfromthesun]

Woods is a scholar, Elucid is an oil painter.

[@liquidpebbles7475]

I almost got an aneurysm when you said Elukid, I'm the guy who send you the pronnunciation on reddit lmao, excited to watch the vid :) edit: agree with so much of what you said, and your perspective on how they convey feeling and intellect in complementary ways was something I instinctively knew but could never describe, this is why i love your channel, also, YES, elucid (and bily woods to that matter) are so good with repeated quotables, and quotable in general, I still cant get over his line in earl's last album "SOME PEOPLE TALK LIKE THEY NEVER GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE" fffffffuck

[@user-fs1lc2cj5s]

for me it’s the classic “you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Think about this all the time and you can hear it on a number of ELUCID related records

[@liquidpebbles7475]

@@user-fs1lc2cj5s fuck yeah An honest day's overrated Broke on payday YOU DONT WORK YOU DONT EAT

[@poopymcpoop9945]

I have dead end hiphop to thank for helping me discover both Elucid, and Billy. All their shit is top notch.

[@calebjagoda3114]

Elucid is an abstract avant garde poet in a New York rapper's body and it's wonderful. Like you said, his writing isn't often saying anything concrete, but instead giving these abstract images that make you feel something, which really reward repeat listens. Which in a way is kind of antithetical to your review style-where you analyze everything really deeply over a short period of time, I think the emotional potency of Elucid's writing grows more powerful over a longer period of time as you live with it. I see a lot of people saying that "Spelling" means casting spells, which is something Elucid refers to a lot, but it's also as straightforward as it can be: he's been spelling, i.e. putting letters together to convey his emotional state. Taking a meta approach to writing is something he does pretty often, whether it's on "50 Wings" by Nicholas Craven ("I've been writing lines describing circles") or "Flavor Flav" by Armand Hammer ("Traveling fifty years back, I only moved the pen six inches"), he does it a lot, and I love it.

[@gptandtft]

After seeing Armand Hammer live a couple weeks ago, I've really come to appreciate Elucid and his role in the group. billy woods stands in the back then comes out with a gut punch of a verse. Elucid balances it out, engaging and putting it out there.

[@kaarefestvog6540]

Met him after a show. He signed a record and we talked a little bit. He lit up a bit when I mentioned Gang Starr. He seems like a real, nice guy. Grinding for that many years gives you perspective.

[@dapogorman4572]

I met them after their show in Orlando about a month ago, and they are both great. Got a picture and they signed a shirt of mine. Both really great and legends of the underground.

[@20thCenturyPox]

Elucid takes longer to click than woods because he is a bit more rhythmically gymnastic and lyrically cryptic, but when it hits he becomes one of your all time greats. When I think about Armand Hammer, I get a sense that there hasn't been two such beautifully complimentary musicians in the same group since Coltrane was playing with Miles.

[@poopymcpoop9945]

I gotta say though this album was one of the first times where I've been giving it replay spins immediately. I'm really enjoying it.

[@Jimmy1982Playlists]

🎯🎯🎯💯 Absolutely! Like most, billy amazed me from the outset... Elucid's brilliance dawned on me a bit slower - now they're both among my favorite MCs.

[@dfwherbie8814]

Umm Coltrane and miles, bro? Lol c’mon now. I hate comparisons like these. Elucid and Woods are dope though. Funny, I’m from south jamaica queens and I never knew Elucid was from there. But he is older than me

[@abuslang5715]

Yeah but ELUCID to me is almost like easier to listen to like Miles

[@mynameistroy]

I have always loved the lines that you point out on Nostrand, but especially the part right after where ELUCID says "from me they didn't get a cent".

[@deadmanperipherals]

E L U C I D is the more abstract of the two so I love to spend hours tryna unravel whatever points he's tryna bring up in his music

[@unimpressedalchemist]

both him and billy are so good because they can switch between crazy poetic abstract shit and some of the most blunt lines ever spit so smoothly.

[@luyolomify]

People need that Quelle Chris album review, Professor!

[@ItsKoseph]

if you meant deathfame he already did review it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4HcZ6OIf79rn8U

[@gptandtft]

Shrines' cover is probably my favorite

[@abuslang5715]

"Smile line like the valley of death" to me without knowing the reference is like somebodys smiling before they are gonna kill somebody, or the smile line is almost like a scar and it show that they have killed people???

[@jonsense4937]

when i first heard their music they both seemed like if they were just rapping random but dope lines...but at that time i wasn't accustomed to that kind of rap style but then with time as i really started to listen, i began to see the imagery they want to portray in their music and it blew my mind.... all to say, their lyrics are complex but when it clicks, it hits hard

[@nbtn]

i think it’s interesting when you’re talking about elucid talking about blackness and marginalization indirectly throughout this album, because he does the opposite on armand hammer’s album Paraffin (their best imo). on that album he has a lot of direct political lines and themes running throughout his verses more than any other album he’s worked on.

[@Jimmy1982Playlists]

I absolutely agree about _Paraffin..._ not only their best album, but one of the best of the 2010s.

[@colecarter2829]

I had the same thought listening to this album. This is the opposite of paraffin. This is the romance and emotions of paraffin.

[@danielgamez8754]

Sometimes every thing doesn't have to rime It's how u use your words and get u set up for next line or two .

[@yakabudaschmohog7953]

If you like Messiah Musik beats you should check out Trapdoor with Defcee. The beats are incredible, great writing, great album.

[@jodiallardice1500]

I think spelling refers to Elucid spelling things out for those around him. He’s telling the listeners that he wants to build up his community but the powers that be keep preventing him from doing so. There’s also a little quip as well about going to Strong Island. A few years ago there was a joke that Long Island should be renamed to Strong Island. Eventually people thought that it was actually going to happen, and some people started advocating for it. Not sure if this is part of the meaning but I find it interesting he chose to include this.

[@elruffin0904]

You have to review some of Ka

[@user-fs1lc2cj5s]

perfectly titled video, elucid is on another plane of existence. So hyped to watch man you give me such joy in posting these! Also when he says “I’ve been Spellling” my first guess is that like Kendrick, he’s been laying low away from social media gimmicks, societal bs, etc. and he’s been writing rhymes (literally “spelling” words) in solitude. Could also be referencing the artist Spellling and how she got a 10/10 recently from fantano. Maybe he’s saying he’s doing what she does, aka creating a masterpiece.

[@Soufpaww]

“Casting spells”. Speaking words into existence/rapping.

[@AhmedMahmoud-or3zs]

Lol

[@user-fs1lc2cj5s]

@@AhmedMahmoud-or3zs ?

[@yoink1113]

"little green ghouls, buddy!"

[@Secondplanetfromthesun]

It took my a bit to get into E L U C I D. I know this is strange for the academic crowd in here but, I feel like I like him maybe even more than Woods now. Maybe... He's got soul like no other.

[@Robert-si5su]

I love how everyone loves the Blake Bortles line lol

[@Robert-si5su]

Great breakdown of the cover. Love these vids

[@jakorabane]

since face got revealed game got real... is a quote from Ghost face..btw. A very dope line

[@OGNICKMARSH]

good albim

[@jasonauble3644]

Billy Woods says he's "Slave to the Hammer" and ELUCID is surrounded by Judas' - are they slowly going their separate ways?

[@julius4986]

“Spelling” as in casting spells

[@theoruehsen4900]

You should track review Eat Men Eat!!!

[@danielgamez8754]

We don't get those privileges We just wrapped our wounds in bandages and keep moving forward .

[@amirdejesus7077]

salute!!

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

Cannibal Ox was already doing that what you call the modern 'avant guard' and the not rhyming etc. Also Company Flow. And some other underground rap from the 90's.

[@skihik591]

It's funny how you refer to this as avant-garde when this might be elucid's most digestible album yet in some ways. Its cool that you're so into it! I highly recommend you check out elucid's band camp if you haven't. I'm interested in how the incomprehensiblilty you try to describe interacts with the notion that the album is "about" The denial of the existence of the black man. I want to say that there is no difference but between the "meaning" of the album and the "feeling"when both are being conjured through the music from that space that is "elsewhere" where one knows one exists but the (white) world is founded on vast and deep ideological assumptions that doesn't exist,---hence the various "portals" one must travel in order to find oneself (especially as black person). Which is all to say insofar as elucid is incomprehensible, it is through that incomprehensibility that we can arrive at any meaning at all whatsoever

[@sizwesokopo281]

If Professor Skye ever does merch, we need an "Elukidate (sic)" coffee mug

[@ADandyGuyInSpace]

👍✊🙏

[@guyfromkingshighway6813]

did you film this with a potato?

[@mai8043]

tf are you talking about, it looks fine

[@saidakil7033]

I think he films with his iphone and I think it looks really great

[@ajholmes4407]

KZbin uploads lower resolution quality first, so if you watch a video 10 minutes after a video is published you might not have full HD options, after about an hour (usually) you can select 1080p etc.

[@karimd88]

@@ajholmes4407 yup, the early watch curse

[@guyfromkingshighway6813]

@@ajholmes4407 ah i didnt know that. thanks

[@mohauntaopane4264]

As close minded as this going to sound/read…If it doesn’t rhyme it’s no longer rap. But that’s just my opinion

[@karimd88]

I mean poetry doesn’t always rhyme? And rap is just poetry and rhythm, so it doesn’t always have to rhyme imo. But it’s still an integral part of hiphop/rap, so you can go without it for a little bit, but not without it period. Oh lol that rhymed, not intended, but oh well

[@thevinyltruffle]

Art evolves. Meanings evolve. Thinking evolves.