Many suspected but few believed in the power of Elzhi and his solo supremacy. As a member of Detroit’s highly recognized group, Slum Village, Elzhi’s individual skills are many times overshadowed by the eclectic aura of the collective, and more recently, the memory of the great producer and former SV member, J Dilla.

As the east coast battles to regain its mark in the genre in which the mid, west and south have forced even the hardest of New York’s fans to look elsewhere for hits (think of the recent success of Kanye West, Lil Wayne and The Game), Detroit is not giving up – with or without Eminem. Elzhi is a prime example of such a champ, dedicated to creating quality music, which is more than evident on The Preface, his debut album that just hit stores and is already having the pessimists in the genre think twice about moaning and groaning about Hip Hop and its current status. Much of the album’s success can be attributed to Elzhi’s conceptual thought patterns, his ear for samples and experimentation, and chemistry with producer Black Milk. HipHopDX sits down with Elzhi to get into his latest creation, his lessons from SV and home of the Motor City.

Elzhi: What's happening?

HipHopDx: Maxing and relaxing. I want to get into The Preface [click to read] off bat; I bumping it last night, and I'm pleasantly impressed.
E: That's what's up; that's what's good. If you like that, the next one [laughing]…I'm really trying to take it down with the next one.

DX: Already back in the lab?
E: I'm working on a mixtape with DJ House Shoes called Elmatic. It's basically the tribute to the classic album, [Nas'] Illmatic. We're basically gonna do the whole album over with additional cuts at the end. Just something we're gonna put out there at the end of the year. And after that I'm gonna be working hard on a record - I already hollered at Phonte [click to read] and he said he was down with getting on a track; and I'm trying to reach out to Raekwon [click to read]…I'm really trying to blow this next one out.

DX: The Preface is receiving encouraging reviews so far. What was your intention with it?
E: To basically let people know that I have an identity aside from what you may hear me do or what you may see me do with Slum Village. I've been doing it for a minute, had projects just on the Internet. My first EP was put on the Internet a minute ago, me and DJ House Shoes did an EP called an Out of Focus EP and people knew me from that. And then from there you had Welcome 2 Detroit, and I was on there, on a J Dilla record, a song called "Come Get It" [click to read]. "Then from there you heard me on the S, but a lot of people know me from the S, just being SV, but they don't know me as a solo emcee."

The Preface is really the beginning of the tale. It's at the beginning and it's letting you know what's going down before it actually happens. Once this hits and has the snowball effect, I'm just gonna keep letting it go; I'm gonna keep flooding the game with music and really taking it to the next level.

DX: The chemistry with Black Milk is great – evident throughout the album. What is it about him that brings out a better emcee in you?
E: Honestly, when I get a track, the track speaks to me in ways through rhythm and colors. When I hear music, I be getting to picture colors. I may hear a horn and a horn may sound like yellow, or depending on how it was played it may have a yellow with a dark undertone or it may be a bright yellow; it may be a dull yellow. Just using that as an example, I see colors in every instrument when I hear music. It's all about what the beat does and Black Milk [click to read] got that fire; he's next in line. He's really killing them now but besides that point, that's what brings out the best in me, the producer. No matter who it is, as long as they got that heat, and the beat is sounding right, I'm gonna translate it to the people that are listening.

DX: You're a fan of sampling…
E: Yeah. I'm a fan of all that. You're gonna hear sampling, you're gonna hear live instrumentation. I really wanna show people that once again, I'm not just like the hot 16 artist. I can definitely do that but I'm so much more than that. I've done had my fare share of open mics, and battles, and taking cats out and trying to prove myself and okay, everybody know that EL can rap but can he make an album? All that coincides with each other: the lyrics, the msic and the way it's arranged.

DX: Any specific decade or genre you prefer in samples?
E: No there's not. I've done rapped over The Police. Shit, I've done rapped over Barry White; I've done rapped over Jimi Hendrix –

DX: Have you tried Ace of Base?
E: [Laughs] I mean I ain't never rapped over Ace of Base, but if somebody can pull that beat off and create it in a way where it's hot like that, I'm all on it, it don't even matter. It's crazy that you say that 'cause I had a song on this CD that leaked out called Europass and on it I had a song called "Audio Cinematic." And people was kind of tripping off of that sample like, "Damn, why did they sample such and such for 'Audio Cinematic'?" Like something was wrong with it. And I'm like, "Man ain't nothing wrong with that." But I'm eclectic though. So I keep forgetting that certain people that's in the Hip Hop community may not listen to The Police, may not listen to Duran Duran. But that's an era that I enjoy man, as well as the Motown era so it don't matter what genre of music it is as long as someone can create a hot – if they can take Kenny Rogers and flip it, I'm on it. Continued on page 2 »