Elijah Y: “Angel Dust” – straight from the heart

Elijah Y (Elijah Yanis el) is an emcee and rapper from Bossier City, LA currently promoting his single “Angel Dust”, featuring MIO and produced by J.E.J. The track is lifted off his “L.G.R.E (Louisiana’s Greatest Rapper Ever)”, a brilliant show case of story-telling, smooth, soulful beats and should be a classic in hip hop. Elijah Y’s lyrics are also a major asset to the record. Befitting perfectly to the jazzy loops and mellow atmospheres, Elijah Y mostly possesses a carefree atmosphere around the mic.

He switches his flows around, from mellow, free flowing storytelling, to internal rhyming, syllable packing, and lyrical swipes at cultural, social and political issues. Elijah Y’s universally easy tone makes his words ooze from his lips to perfection.

Part of the “Angel Dust” charm is Elijah Y’s wholly effortless rapping, even when lyrically pulling syllables out of the highest draw. It’s all smooth 90’s styled rap, horn samples abound, thumping drums, well defined bass lines, and a microphone for the emcee to rip.

The apparent simplicity of the record, and how everything fuses together, is how Elijah Y manages to build such a relatable groove. The song features an all-round great vocal arrangement, resulting in an almost poly-rhythmic feel between rhyming and melody.

All of this is laid out over Elijah Y’s resonating rapping tones that never seems to hint at losing momentum, as he roams the far corners of his mind and lets them flow into the mic. Elijah Y is impacting right from the very first listen. There is no other way to describe. He has a legendary vocal style, which makes his lyrics a more than interesting read.

It seems like he drops every line straight from the heart, and has the kind of voice that you just want to rally around and listen to. What I mean to say is that Elijah Y is much more powerful speaker than many of his contemporaries, and in a totally different league to all the mumble rappers you’re listening to right now.

Most of Elijah Y’s beats that I listened on the album to have a large jazz influence, and are a perfect match for his deliveries. “Angel Dust” probably has the most urbanized sound on the album, while also featuring a powerful Reggae flavor.

Elijah Y presides over his consciousness with an old world grace and steely strength that feels oddly calming in these uniquely turbulent times. The rapper knows his duty to educate and inspire the public, without preaching pretentiously, or pandering apologetically. It’s not just a blueprint for other rappers, its motivation for Elijah Y himself to speak truths.

In a no-frills, unbridled lyrical showcase, bridging the gap between two generations of hip-hop lovers, Elijah Y, MIO and J.E.J have been able to deliver a very graceful and moving track that is hard to come by these days, in the world of Trap and commercial hip-hop.