Because of the live instrumentation on the album, and the fact he's usually opinionated about these types of things, I would think he would have had something to say about this album. Honestly, I didn't see many "heads" respond to Elzhi's album. It did seem to be well received by the fans, and I know DJ Premier gave Will Sessions some respect for the beats in this video. http://youtu.be/KYNptz4gm28 I'm wondering what quest had to say about this project, mainly about the live instrumentation.
8. "Yeah, I'd like to hear his take too." In response to Reply # 0
Granted The Roots have literally made a career of translating traditional hip-hop production techniques into live recordings so he would have a great perspective on the project. Things that Will did well and ways the project could have been better.
Personally, I love that record. The instrumentals are available on Spotify so I'll pull those out every so often and gave them quite a bit of run over a couple of months.
The only work of Elzhi's I knew of was his verse on Little Brother's Hiding Place and I liked that verse so I was interested to hear the project. Elzhi spit flames throughout. I can't really think of a bad verse although obviously there are songs I like more than others.
I think the concept of doing a remake of the album could have went really bad but I think he managed to reinterpret the lyrical content enough to make a statement on his own apart from Nas' original songs.
9. "Sessions did a great job remaking the beats live." In response to Reply # 0
They sound hard and fresh. I specifically loved the "It Ain't Hard to Tell" remake. That shit comes alive everytime I hear it.
And Elzhi, as always, spit his ass off and flowed his ass off, all over that album.
I just wished he hadn't wasted so many years surrounding the album, if that makes sense. Like it was a damn cool pet project and I'm glad it happened, I really enjoy it to this day ... but it was sorta gimmicky and therefore we almost literally went 8 full years between actual, original Elzhi solo projects. And that's a shame.
11. "Word yea I know about that (mostly cause of the tone and content ..." In response to Reply # 10
... of Lead Poison) so I don't begrudge him taking some time to get his mind right and get healthy. Wasn't really criticizing him. I guess my point was just that, for example, I wish Elmatic was a mixtape, a lead up to a proper album dropped one after the other in quick succession. That way we wouldn't have had such a gap between proper Elzhi solo albums.
>That might have been a good reason for the delay between >albums. But he could release more music and definitely satisfy >his audience.