The first sound you hear on Elzhi's The Preface is a sample of a preacher's voice lamenting, "I don't know what this world is coming to!" followed by Elzhi (government name: Jason Powers) grumbling to his friends about the "bullshit on the radio" over an artfully faded, tape loop-soul beat courtesy of Detroit producer Black Milk that summons the ghost of Jay Dee. In other words, short of watermarking the album with a voice intoning "this is an indie-rap album" at odd intervals, there isn't much more Elzhi could do to clarify his intentions. The moral and creative bankruptcy of "current" hip-hop and the world's pervasive wickedness, after all, are independent hip-hop's two most shopworn laments, and at this point they tend to produce more eye rolls than head nods.

Luckily, Elzhi at least has the credentials to back up his griping: he was a member of Slum Village, the late-'90s Detroit trio that once counted the mighty J Dilla in its ranks. On The Preface, Elzhi has recruited Black Milk to serve as his surrogate Dilla, in much the same way Ghostface gathered together enough Wu disciples to recreate a semblance of the Abbott's sound on… read more »