Our Interview with Elsphinx
Who else can be sacrificed to Cerberus
Every so often, old hip hop heads get bored with what's going on in da rapz world. There's too many 2 Chainz or Drake knock offs. We get lost in what's supposed to be cool and force ourselves to listen to the new kids on the block. We try to jam out on every new critically acclaimed Pitchfork album, hoping we understand something we seem to be missing. I for one, definitely struggle.
In the indie world of rap music, you can tell there's people with the same mindset. There's Joey Badass, who's like 19, and decided to re-make 90's rap. But, it's hard to make something with the same feels of the time if you didn't grow up in that era. Different time. Different mindset. So, these people make paint-by-number, 1-2-3, boom bap, lyrically lyrical dense raps about nothing. What you end up getting is a boring interpretation of what they think was the music of the time.
Then there are old heads still being innovative, like Run the Jewels. These guys are a rare specimen in this arena. Rarely, I mean white rhino rare, does this type of phenomena happen. Ten sad African kids have to die in a mine to find jewels like this. Another rare jewel, is my man Elsphinx. This guy is rare steak rare. How rare? So rare, I'm risking Joel getting pissed I used the word rare this many times in a row, rare.
Elsphinx just released BRAINCAVE DELUXE on Pig Food Records. The first time I heard it, I felt like the guy who was ripping hearts out of people in Indiana Jones. I stood there, pure power in my hands. Elsphinx raps like if he doesn't rap better than everyone else on the planet, Satan will come back to reclaim his soul. I feel like after every song he was like "Fuck you world! I just won!" And slapped his mic to the ground.
I myself, have been blessed to have this man destroy the beat I sent him for my album. Anyone who has ever ever had this guy on their album (Lang Vo...Is Just An Asshole, ALASKA's-ALTKAST, and his verse on ADULT RAPPERS Soundtrack) knows what I'm talking about. The fury he projects from his four foot ten inch frame is awe inspiring. Nothing you can write before or after will not make you feel and sound like a piece of shit asshole.
All of that aside, he's a super sweety pants head, he sat down and spent some time answering some of my adorable as a panda nose questions for SYFFAL.
Aaaaaannnnddd heeeeeerreeee wwweeeee gooooooooo.......
SYFFAL: When you rapped on a Lang Vo beat how badass did it make you feel? Did it make you feel 5'2" instead of 5'1" tall?
ELSPHINX: It made me feel a MILLION MILES TALL in Birge Dubai elevator platform shoes. Height is only a construct of the mind. For the record, I'm only 5'1" while lying on my back.
SYFFAL: WOW! You must drink a lot of beer! So on Pig Food Records website it says Brain Cave Deluxe was a long time coming and went thru many changes to be this masterpiece we are hearing now. How long did it take to record? Why so many changes? How many songs were there? Who handled the production? Why are puppies so cute?
Easy enough twenty-part question.
ELSPHINX: I came up with the title for the record six years ago. It had a very different genetic makeup then. Some of its extremities had lobster claws. Some of its teeth were less jagged and pronounced. There were always 18 songs because knowledge build/destroy will always be born to born. I think I read that in an issue of Highlights in a hair salon when I was a kid. Some of those songs just stayed where they were while I continued to evolve. I went through a lot. Death, rebirth, elation, addiction, the EZ Pass lane to West Virginia. I stopped fucking with certain people and started fucking with new friends heavily. The process was like a wholesome Christian household family sitcom puberty. The result is a diagram of the Vitruvian man with a 5'1" tie dyed tripod.
The record was mixed, mastered and polished by the unparalleled PJ Katz. It would not exist in the state that it does without him. He seasoned the cauldron broth with some savory production celery. Hunchback Esquire from Fresno, CA had both hands in stirring the stew. C-Note from San Jose simmered it to taste with shaved cactus buttons. There were a grip of warlock chefs around the fire that night. (Insert production credits here)
- Meet Me In The Swamp - produced by Hunchback Esquire
- Cellar Door - produced by Hunchback Esquire
- Pork Swordsmen - produced by PJ Katz
- Up & Atom - produced by C-Note
- Pocketwatch Therapy - produced by PJ Katz
- Hi-Def Dream Theatre - produced by Hunchback Esquire
- Legit's Tooth - produced by Rob Viktum
- hippykoalafax // trapped in the hour of 8 - produced by Surge Cess
- Cities of Rust - produced by Radiolab
- Being Chased by Celestial Objects - produced by Theorist
- Infinity Gauntlet - produced by r0b0tr0n
- Elements - produced by C-Note
- With Hazel - produced by Melvin Junko
- War Pig - produced by elsphinx
- Got The Time - produced by PJ Katz
- Farewell, Flora - produced by Hunchback Esquire
- Moth - produced by Misnomer
- Pork Swordsmen remix - produced by J57
Puppies are so cute because who else can be sacrificed to Cerberus with such implicit acquiescence? Who else will drink all the nail polish remover when you're working at the Sunoco to feed them while you sustain nourishment from the stuff the Subway next door is going to throw out? Fucking so cute.
SYFFAL: I was going to go with 22 questions but the other 2 were kind of the same, like: Why are kittens so cute and why is bacon so delish? But you seemed like a human who hates cats and maybe you're a vegan. How many notebooks do you fill up for one song? Your shit is wicked dense.
ELSPHINX: I can fill up one subject in a five subject Five Star notebook with nothing but drawings of sentient, oddly-beaked chess piece owl giants laying grenade eggs.
I write songs with sharpie on my forehead in the mirror and scrape them off with molten-hot chore boy after they've been recorded. That's how I age so gracefully. My bathroom sink has been clogged for two years.
SYFFAL: Mine too, but because I have such a luxo beard. Now that you shit this amazing baby out, whats next? Future projects? Marriage?
ELSPHINX: Thank you again for calling it an amazing shit baby. Yes. The follow up project is in its infancy, but that's what happens next. I'm already married to the game, Copernicus.
SYFFAL: Sorry i didn't realize we were in church. I meant "crap". How cool do you think it would be to hang out with me in real life? Would we be like Lavern and Shirls or Biden and Cheney? Do you think you are cooler than me? How much of a sweetie pie is that adorbz P.J. feller?
ELSPHINX: It would be like Sidney Deane and Billy Hoyle. You'd be cooler at first but in the long run people will say "Damn look at his shoes, also look at Rosie Perez's tits."
Katz is the fucking man. This album wouldn't exist in the state that it does without him.
SYFFAL: I heard you have wicked shoe game. Rosie Perez is still alive?! Seriously though, the album is really amazing and dense, but not like listening to the RZA reading the dictionary. And also not like a retro 90's record. It has all the elements of what people claim is missing, without directly trying to rip that vibe. How do you feel now that its done and out there?
ELSPHINX: Relief. It's been gestating within me for an eon. It wasn't my aim to recreate any specific sound. I love 90's rap. My vision was to expand on where the bookmark was left. And I'm flattered that people are understanding it.
SYFFAL: I feel you've done just that with this album. Continued the tradition without going down the same old paths. It's a really amazing feat this days. Do you think you could dunk on me in a game of H.O.R.S.E.?
ELSPHINX: Nah. I eat my captain dunk for breakfast but I'll splash on you from deep. At impossible angles. I've never been a yammer. I'll razzle dazzle because it's the shoes. Boomshakalaka.
SYFFAL: I was joking. I'm asian. I'm only good at math. Anything you want to say before i kick you out of my emails?
ELSPHINX: I showed up to your emails uninvited. I'll see myself out. Buy the album you bastard bitches. BRAIN CAVE DELUXE!