Hip-Hop & Rap Culture: Elzhi

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Elzhi

Posted by Big Simba

Jason Powers (better known as Elzhi - often printed as eLZhi) is a rapper and a former member of the Detroit group Slum Village. Elzhi joined Slum Village in 2001 while they were working on their third album, Trinity (Past, Present and Future).

In 1998, Elzhi recorded a number of songs with Detroit hip-hop artist DJ Houseshoes with DJ Rios. These recording sessions yielded the material that would become the Out of Focus EP.

In late 2000, Elzhi acquired his master tapes and provided his close friends with CD's of the Out of Focus EP in addition to 3 extra tracks. These few discs allowed the material to eventually leak onto the internet under the name "Unreleased Solo Project." CDs sold or distributed under this title are usually completely mislabeled with inaccurate tracklistings and credits.

In 2000, Elzhi became a frequent collaborator with Waajeed. During their countless recording sessions, the pair would create an untold number of songs. "Stunted Growth" is one of the few tracks to ever emerge from this era of recording.
Slum Village began recording their follow up to Fantastic, Vol. 2. During the sessions, T3 invited Elzhi to collaborate on a few tracks. One of the earliest of these was the "Aerodynamic Remix" by Daft Punk which was featured on the Kiss of the Dragon soundtrack. Originally, Slum Village intended Elzhi's presence on the album to be nothing more than a featured guest. But, recognizing their chemistry, Baatin and T3 invited Elzhi to become a full-time member, a choice enthusiastically supported by J Dilla. In July 2010 elZhi officially announced his departure from Slum Village. Elzhi's manager Hex Murda was quoted in XXL magazine saying, “For all intents and purposes concerning eLZhi, Slum Village is defunct." Bio from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elzhi