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.

The potential for it to be really lame was high (just trying to tackle a classic) and I think they executed it pretty damn well.

I'm surprised quest hasn't talked about this, or even talked about Will Sessions in general. Their Mixtakes was awesome too.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

and is (kind of awkwardly) Elzhi's best work to date

i still think it is so awesome.

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.

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.

That might have been a good reason for the delay between albums. But he could release more music and definitely satisfy his audience.

... 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.