Verse of the Year Contender: Elzhi “Motown 25”

As a young bol in the late mid-to-late 90s, the Source  was the truth, slap my hand on the Bible!  I COULD NOT WAIT to get off the bus at Broad and Tasker on the way to high school and walk past the newstand before heading down the piss-infested steps of the Broad St. Line.  Would this be the day the new issue of the Source came out?  Nope–already got the one with Lil’ Kim and Foxy on the cover.

And if you were the first dude to cop that new Source, you damn well knew that if you pulled it out any point during the school day, you’d be asked 12 times during every class if Lamont or Brian or Jeff or Malik could “hold dat” until the bell.  It gave you a sense of exclusivity and power like Morgan Freeman’s character Red in “Shawshank Redemption”–you were THE GUY who had what they so desperately wanted.  You would either say, “Nah I haven’t even read it yet.  I’ll let you hold it later” which was a TOTAL lie and they knew it; or you would succumb to the ice grillin’ and the constant cries of “C’mon man!?!” and pass it off KNOWING you’d get it back in 42 minutes with the cover all mangled and bent, pages wrinkled, spine tattered.  

**People complain about kids not reading, playing too many video games, blah blah blah–in my 4 years of high school, not a day went by when guys of all ages, races, and reading levels weren’t devouring the Daily News, Inquirer, Metro, Source, XXL, or Slam.**

The most exciting time to be an avid read of The Source was the Year End Issue.  In it, you learned what the most essential, exciting, and outstanding moments were in the past hip hop calendar year.  Don’t feed me that horseshit as to why you didn’t hear the Diamond D remix of Ras Kass’ “Soul on Ice” yet–The Source put it on the Best of Fat Tape ’97!  Find that song, I couldn’t care HOW you do it, and revere it, study it, become it.

My absolute favorite section was the Hip Hop Quotable of the Year.  Back when rappers actually gave a rat’s ass about writing great lyrics, there was no higher honor.  If you didn’t know that verse by heart already, the Source had it all written out for you–how else did I manage to memorize Ghostface’s verse on “Impossible” (Quotable of ’97) and Big Pun’s verse on “Dream Shatterer” (Quotable of ’98) in the matter of a day?  That’s how much weight the Source held not too long ago–you were forced to acknowledge lyrical greatness in a time when lyrics were the main entree. 

If you hadn’t noticed by the latest Webbie song, lyrics kinda got shitty.  And since no one reads the Source anymore, it’s hard to find a central hip hop church to worship greatness.   This blog is FAR from that.  But I wanted to do my part as a hip hop fan who still gets amped over a ferocious 16 or 24 or 48 bar beatdown.  So here’s another subsection of the blog called Verse of the Year Contender.

I started this blog too late to include Black Thought’s ungodly “75 Bars.”  Believe you me, that is making the rounds in my cerebral cortex everyday.  Today, I wanted to spotlight Elzhi’s jawdropping scamper through threats, double entendres, punchlines and “oh shit!” moments on the track “Motown 25″ featuring Royce 5’9” produced by Black Milk.  You can listen to it here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/11770252ab29e51d/

I’m not going to transcribe the whole thing (believe me, I want to).  I do want to add a few thoughts:

1. If you didn’t peep my last Beat Generation column at the Passion of the Weiss, scroll down to the section about rappers who rap just enough to maintain greatness and relevance.  Elzhi has NEVER come off wack, nor written anything that wasn’t punishing, clever, layered and delivered with pinpoint clarity.
2. Doc Zeus just wrote a piece on the imporance of MCs actually writing down their lyrics.  Barry from Disco Vietnam is a strong advocate of spontaneity and rappers staying true to themselves and their lyrics by freestyling verses to capture that raw exuberance.  However, this is what happens when an MC enjoys writing lines down in front on him, tying concepts together, eliminating wasteful words, and creating lyrical beartraps for the listener to walk right into.
3. Royce 5’9”, whose “Bar Exam” mixtape is still a clinic on lyrics, gets absolutely SPANKED on this joint.  Me and Nico listened to this at the lab last night and wondered why Royce decided to rhyme after Elzhi and why he even bothered to jump on the track.  Royce borrows Jay’s flow and inflection from “American Gangster” to no avail.  He is relegated to clean-up duty, like U-God spitting on a joint after Method Man.  Royce is one of the sharpest MCs alive and is powerless to Elzhi’s brilliance. 

I’ll be writing more posts like this whenever someone writes some mindblowing bars.  Let me know in the comments if you have any picks thus far for 2008.