Elzhi really did it! There are not many musicians who dare to reinterpret controversial classics, most of them fail mercilessly. In 1994, Illmatic was the album that was to be called one’s own, Nasty Nas revolutionized the common style of narration as profoundly, as few have ever done before or after him. His Flow (slightly along the lines of the young Tragedy’s) served as the kick-start for a gaggle of more or less talented Queensbridge-pupils, and for the first time, an MC who had only been known to insiders was now properly praised and swamped with an arsenal of beats by the Red Apple’s best producers. About three years ago, the idea of making a tribute started to grow on the mind of the Detroit-based wordsmith Elzhi – the actual way of how to respectfully implement such plan without loosing one’s face finally became clear in the course of time: he hired the band Will Sessions who found inspiration in the original beats, crafted his rhymes’ references more contemporary, added his very own twist and thereby made the »New York State Of Mind« of ‘94 become a »Detroit State Of Mind« of 2011. And yes, it’s done masterfully. Elmatic is a real blessing in times of wildly jumping kids-rappers, rapping over daffy synths-beats and being praised to the skies by clueless Leftfield-nerds.