ELUCID & Sebb Bash – I Guess U Had To Be There

Along with his Armand Hammer co-conspirator billy woods, New York City rapper ELUCID has established himself as one of the leading voices in underground Hip Hop. Mercy, the duo’s seventh Armand Hammer record and their second collaboration with The Alchemist, dropped late last year, and while the reviews were positive, I couldn’t shake the feeling that signs of fatigue were creeping in. 

I don’t care how skilled a rapper is—following such a hectic release schedule is going to dull their edge at some point. And I’m not just talking about solo records and Armand Hammer—both ELUCID and woods are generous collaborators, popping up frequently in guest spots for other artists. 

But perhaps I’m reading too much into a minor dip? After all, ELUCID’s last solo record, 2024’s Revelator, was arguably his best yet, a dense, abrasive work with jarring industrial undertones.

Never one to rest on his laurels, I Guess U Had To Be There sees the NYC veteran changing things up alongside highly-rated Swiss producer Sebb Bash. It’s a smart move. Bash’s sophisticated sonic collages integrate flashes of jazz and funk with deftly chosen samples, gauzy psychedelia, and ambient found sounds. “Alive Herbals” is a great example of their chemistry; ELUCID’s flow has never been the most musical, but Bash’s canvas, especially in the second section, offers him the space to paint abstract rhymes in a style that evokes the great MF DOOM. Another highlight, opener “First Light,” is cut from a similar cloth.

The emotional centrepiece of the record, however, is literally its middle third. Over the course of three vibrant tracks, ELUCID and Bash truly raise the bar: the mostly drumless “Coonspeak,” the jazzy “Equiano” (which features a great Shabaka Hutchings cameo on flute), and the obligatory billy woods feature, “The Lorax,” with its eerie sci-fi sonics and woods’ masterful imagery (“A wisp of cannabis smoke curl out the window of the whip/Subtle how the wind shift”).

There is no sense of fatigue here. Alongside Sebb Bash, ELUCID sounds reinvigorated on what is essentially a more traditional Hip Hop record than Revelator—and, if I’m honest, a better one.

Transmitter is out now via Backwoodz/Rhymesayers.