Jason Powers, better known as Elzhi, has dealt with the death of close friends and the break-up of his group Slum Village, but he still sounds as passionate as ever.
“It’s more than getting paid. You can’t even put into words how it feels to put the mic out and have the crowd finish your sentence. I love to create. I love to write something, put it down in the studio and play it back. It’s a beautiful feeling man. I do it for the whole experience."
Elzhi joined underground favourites Slum Village in 2001, a group often praised as the reincarnation of A Tribe Called Quest. Legendary producer J Dilla was partly responsible for bringing Elzhi into the group and helped him to get his first paid music gig.
Sadly, Dilla passed away in 2006 after a battle with Lupus disease. Founding Slum Village member Baatin also died three years later due to mysterious circumstances surrounding a struggle with mental illness.
After their 2010 release Villa Manifesto, Elzhi announced his departure from the group citing shady managers and underhanded labels.
Despite a traumatic decade, he says he never considered quitting rap. “The way it affected my music, it made me want to get a lot more personal. You can’t just bottle those feelings up inside, so the only way I know how to get them out is express it through my music. It’s almost therapeutic for me. It’s almost like medicine.”
But, Elzhi isn’t bitter and twisted either. He’s excited about going solo and told The Groove Guide, he spent last night working with producer Alchemist on new material. “Oh man! I’m about to put another album out. Hopefully, by the end of this year. I’m trying to do something different. The Alchemist is incredible, we just knocked out a couple of joints that were insane.”
Elzhi also recently released a digital album named Elmatic, which is his personal tribute to the Nas classic Illmatic. Recreating a definitive rap album is a hefty task and only lyrical gods stand in the same league as Nas, but Elzhi says he didn’t feel any pressure. “It was just me trying to approach the project from a fan’s point of view. I wasn’t trying to out-do the classic Illmatic album. I was just trying to show my appreciation of it.”
Detroit funk band Will Sessions produced the entire mixtape and put their own flair on the now legendary beats created by the likes of Pete Rock and DJ Premier.
“They did those beats on beat machines. My version is done by a live band. It’s an eight piece band and they are known for their funk nights every month at a place called The Majestic, in Detroit. They did an incredible job on it. They added their own twist to the music so I was very happy with it,” Elzhi says.
Fan response has also been positive with his version of ‘It Aint Hard To Tell’ gaining over 150,000 views on Youtube. “Now that I’ve put the album out, I’m glad I did because when I go out and I perform, and I get a chance to kick it with the fans, they actually tell me about how they appreciate me doing that.” Chrysler also recently selected Elzhi for their Emerging Artist advertising campaign and he’ll be driving one of their flash new jeeps while on tour.
But more importantly, did Nas like the album? “I haven’t heard from Nas himself just yet, but my manager and his manager have been talking. From what I know, his management and everybody around him loves the project. So that’s all I need.”
After 10 minutes on the phone with Elzhi, it’s obvious his career is cemented in creativity rather than record sales. Slum Village briefly flirted with the mainstream when they collaborated with Kanye West and John Legend on the track ‘Selfish,’ in 2004. The song was a moderate hit charting at number 55 on the Billboard Chart, but Elzhi says he’s proudly independent from any commercial pressure.
“It’s a little bidding war right now, with a few labels looking at me. It’s all a blessing man, but at this point we doing this without a record deal.
“I perform hip-hop because I love hip-hop. I feel like if I was working at the plant or working anywhere else, I would still be writing and making songs.”
By Jimmy Ness