For Elzhi, every new song is an opportunity to prove how much sharper his pen is than yours. The Detroit emcee means it in the true school sense—after all, he hails from an era where the terms “pen” and “emcee” were sacred totems. He's either talking about failed relationships or paying homage to Nas Illmatic in the form of an entire LP, he revels in his status as a hyper-technical rapper with concept albums and a knack for cerebral storytelling.
Elzhi's style is rich and rigid, but his effectiveness depends on the tempos at which he works. For the past five years, he's gravitated toward single-producer-directed albums. In 2018 jericho jackson Jamla Records producer Chrysis delivered a sizzling boom-bap that covered Elzhi's raps in a hushed sepia tone. Brooklyn producer JR Swiftz gave 2020 Seven times down Eight times up a rich, mushy feel; and the living ornaments of 2022 Zigeist recast Detroit rapper and collaborator Georgia Ann Multrow as an Afrofuturist jet setter. With Heavy Vibrato, joins forces with Oxnard producer Oh No, who delivers a thick beat fest that Elzhi rips like beef.
Oh No—known as Madlib's brother and half of the duo Gangrene with the Alchemist—is cut from the same traditional cloth as Elzhi. His love of sampling pulls him in strange directions. To keep his grimy sound fresh, he pulls from dark Swedish psychedelic rock records and Nintendo 64 video games. There's a hazy vibe to his work, as if every beat came from the cracks of a sauna bench, but Heavy Vibrato cuts through the fog with sharp, jazzy arrangements. On “Say It Don't Spray It,” the drums roll, almost confused next to bells and synths. they gently rattle behind swirling piano and xylophone sounds on “RIP (Radio International Programming)” and enjoy the feel of a live player on “Fireballs”. These are some of the spookiest – and purest – beats Oh No has ever produced, throbbing and overflowing with a cartoonish feel.
Vibrato it's colorful and vibrant and Elzhi matches that aura with nimble bars that don't stray too far from his lyrical comfort zone. There are still ideas at play here, but 2016's theme of album length Lead poisoning it's erased? since then, it has relied on vignettes and looser motifs. Proper opening track “Trick Dice” is classic rap swagger, a space for Elzhi to embarrass lesser rappers and open intricate bars for kicks: “Those who put them money where they chief were/Pushed outta Mother Earth before Father Time can to bury them under it.” He takes it a step further on last albums 'Fireballs', offering haters nuclear missile layers of words over a sprawling swirl of tight bass and keys.There's a hum to the way his words connect and flow together when he's just looking for a way to metaphorically clear his throat – he could even make a sentence sound good.
