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Chris gracefully stumbles through his verse, never quite losing his balance woods manages to cut through the cloud of smoke with some of the sharpest bars on the record, a sardonic stab at avarice: вЂњI can see it in the eyes of your oldest/I can see you just goingвЂ™ through the motions, feel the coldness/Hop off the private jet, walk into the rotors, thatвЂ™s new money/Old money mummified corpses, tryna stuff it in their coffins.вЂќ I Told BessieвЂ™s strongest moments are with others, like the indica-laced posse cut вЂњSardonyx,вЂќ featuring woods, Pink Siifu, and Quelle Chris, all-stars from the art-rap cognoscenti.

woodsвЂ™ EP credit is more than just vanity he manages to sequence tracks from eight different producers into a cohesive mood, climaxing with the analog static of вЂњBetamax,вЂќ in which Elucid hints at finding meaning in rhythmic patterns.ДЄs hard as he often sounds, ElucidвЂ™s music is informed by empathy: for his family, his neighbors, his collaborators. Any of them feel like they could appear on Armand Hammer records, but вЂњNostrandвЂќ in particular-with its twinkling piano and horror-film bass line-feels like a Haram outtake. woodsвЂ™ gravitational force exerts itself on ElucidвЂ™s verses, which feel more focused and precise than on the tracks without him. Even the smoother parts, like the funereal horn on вЂњImpasse,вЂќ get disrupted by chaotic percussion and other subtle, unsettling elements.Дespite I Told BessieвЂ™s status as a solo record, billy woods is deeply involved, with guest vocals on four tracks and an executive producer credit. The albumвЂ™s production feels confrontational and uncomfortable, colored by warped vocal samples, off-kilter rhythms, and hypnotic loops. You can hear Elucid split the difference on I Told Bessie, his precision ebbing and flowing with the music, growing more chaotic as the production unravels. HeвЂ™s said that he finds billy woods (his partner in Armand Hammer) to be more precise and calculated, while Rory Ferreira (his partner in Nostrum Grocers) is a bit jazzier, more comfortable with improvisation and embracing mistakes. ElucidвЂ™s abstractions are similarly both dizzying and profound, obscuring metaphor and clever wordplay in a fog of loose association: вЂњWith emphasis, the spirits say/Every hole speak when the mirrors play/Fear of plague, sense-making stop/Hoof-and-mouth to pox, chasing clocks to bed/Spin your top and your TV's cut,вЂќ he raps on вЂњSmile Lines.вЂќД®lucidвЂ™s collaborators do more than just add color to his songs they tend to pull him into their orbit, shaping his own style in the process. A latecomer to rock music, heвЂ™s professed a love for the chaotic lyrical stylings of the Mars Volta, a band whose disjointed storytelling can seem indecipherable both in spite and in service of the authorвЂ™s intention.

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I Told Bessie feels more abstract yet equally expressive, with dissociative raps that are often rooted in narrative but free from the burden of plot.

Most of ElucidвЂ™s work in Armand Hammer exudes a dark, murky mood informed by a pro-Black, anti-capitalist perspective.

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