Once “Outsiders,” the Music World Is Now at BLK ODYSSY’s Fingertips

Juwan Elcock aka BLK ODYSSY (Photo courtesy of Earthchild Ent.)

Deluxe editions of records aren’t usually this exciting. Typically it’s the album you already dig, supplemented with some bonus content – demos, alternate versions, covers – but rarely are they game-changing artistic statements. BLK ODYSSY’s BLK VINTAGE REPRISE seems to be the exception.

The expanded version of August’s BLK VINTAGE, which inspired this moving Chronicle feature and crested my Top 100 Records of 2021 List, hits on June 24 via Empire and includes six new cuts. The two singles that have gone public so far, “COMPLEX OF KILLING A MAN” and “BENNY’S GOT A GUN,” crystalizes the neo-soul, funk, and hip-hop universe emanating from the mind of bandleader Juwan Elcock, formerly known as Sam Houston.

The tracks both came out with intertwining videos, co-directed by Elcock and Joey Hunt, that center around gun violence in a portrayal of life that’s cruel and complex. “BENNY’S GOT A GUN,” in particular, zeros in on a brutally bullied tean, powerfully played by actor Mtalazia Stone, who resorts to deadly, and ultimately misdirected, retaliation.

“I feel like people needed to understand that violence is not exclusive to the hoods of Chicago, the hoods of Jersey or Newark,” Elcock said via phone last week. “It's not exclusive to anything, it's a universal problem, which means gun problems. So that could take place in so many different ways. It could be a guy going to a fucking elementary school shooting it up. It can be a kid that got a gun because he wanted to retaliate – and that was his only means to retaliate. I wanted people to understand what the fuck is actually going on in this country and that this is dangerous.”

Benny the Butcher, the prominent rapper who came out of Buffalo, NY’s Griselda collective, contributes a monumental verse to “BENNY’S GOT A GUN” and appears in the video. The collaboration was linked through Empire, the flourishing hip-hop label and distribution company that BLK ODYSSY is signed to. The track also features the godfather of psychedelic funk George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic – though that collab was more a matter of destiny.

Growing up in Plainfield, NJ, where Funkadelic sprung from, Elcock has had various familial and bandmate connections with Clinton, and frequently has cited him as a foremost musical inspiration, but never broke musical bread with the producer/vocalist/bandleader. That changed with a run-in in March.

“I was in Los Angeles with [BLK ODYSSY guitarist] Alejandro [Rios] finishing up a trip after we did a show out there,” shares the singer and producer. “Just a couple weeks before, I asked the label ‘Can we get George Clinton on a track? We got some money now, can we pay him?’ And everyone at the label was like, ‘Man, that's super unrealistic. George Clinton doesn't just hop on tracks of artists, even when they’re, like huge.’ I think the last thing he did was with Kendrick Lamar.

“So fast forward, like two weeks later, I'm in L.A. and I saw George Clinton was doing shit with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were getting their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and George Clinton was out there with them. I made jokes with Alejandro that morning, like I'm probably just gonna go down there and just tell him ‘Lets go go into the studio.’ Well we went shopping a couple hours later on Melrose and were walking out of the store, and literally walking in was George Clinton. I was like ‘There's no way that this is happening,’ but I'm not gonna be that guy and not take the shot. So I went up to him and I told him, ‘Yo, what’s good? I'm from Plainfield, we have a lot of mutual friends, I used to play with your nephew.’ Then he was kind of just like,’Cool, man. Well, thanks. Good to meet you,’ and walked off. Then I told the assistant who was with him who I was and that we’d really like to work with him and I gave her my information. Two weeks later, she reached out and asked if we still wanted to do the record – ‘George had said he has time to do it today.’”

Elcock’s inner dialog: “Holy fuck.”

Courtesy of Earthchild Ent.

While the Reprise expansion comes down the pike, Elcock is also continuing to work on records he says will be released under his own imprint which is part of the Empire deal. Through that label, Earthchild Ent., he plans to put out work by Eimaral Sol and Harry Edohoukwa – both of whom have been in his close creative circle since before BLK Vintage made his project a national breakout.

In fact, the BLK ODYSSY nucleus – which includes his brother Jordan Elcock and Rios – had been working on longform recordings for Sol and Edohoukwa before turning their attention to helping make BLK VINTAGE.

“I'm super grateful for them, that they kind of put their stuff down [to be part of BLK VINTAGE] and I was like, ‘Alright, let's just get this record across the wire and finish it,’” Elcock explains. “So between Harry and Eimaral and a bunch of other people, they just built a community around the original record. So once like VINTAGE released, we kind of hopped back in gear on Eimaral’s record and it was the plan the whole time to kind of have like a whole sort of crew or collective. Because we all came into the situation considering ourselves sort of outsiders to the scene here, which we liked because we have a tight knit crew. So it was inevitable that once one of us got a deal, whoever it was was going to do the same exact thing. But you know, BLK ODYSSY got the deal first and I made sure everyone knew that we have at least like two or three other artists that need to be attached to this label as well.

“For us to get a record deal was great, but to see Harry and Eimaral follow suit, and already have that confirmation that they're going to the same label – that was just like a sigh of relief for me, because it's just the original goal.”

Elcock says the Earthchild Ent. label situation is effectively Empire giving him a route to sign artists and give them a significant budget for promotion and marketing – “not like $20,000 budgets,” he notes. “But like, full-on budgets like that can really move artists forward.”

“For us, it’s like a pipeline and I feel glad to be the one who can bridge that gap,” he says of helping fellow Austin artists release their work.

That prompted the question: Does Elcock, who is known for bringing a wide variety of musicians into the studio to collaborate, see being a ringleader as part of his musical DNA?

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘ringleader,’” he demures. “More just like someone who really enjoys bringing people together.”

Asked what the next project will be from BLK ODYSSY, after BLK VINTAGE REPRISE, and Elcock drops a bomb: BLK ODYSSY’s next project is an EP with the Alchemist. The California based producer is considered the crème de la crème of outside-the-box hip-hop, having helmed high-marked collaborations with Freddie Gibbs, Action Bronson, Boldy James, Armand Hammer, Curren$y, and Conway the Machine, while also serving as Eminem’s resident DJ. Given the Alchemist and BLK ODYSSY’s shared predilection for dense yet catchy production, not to mention the former’s gold-plated rolodex, we can’t wait to hear their work together.