New York rapper and producer Elucid, frequently rendered in all capitals as E L U C I D, crafts raw futuristic avant-garde hip-hop both independently and through multiple group endeavors, above all the widely praised Armand Hammer partnership with billy woods. His abstract and unconventional beats draw from free jazz, industrial music, noise, and Indian classical traditions, while his textual approach echoes the work of poets and activists Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde. Themes of worldwide conflict and the harsh sociopolitical atmosphere recur throughout his writing, balanced by an undercurrent of resolve and optimism. Several mixtapes marked his arrival during the 2000s, after which he launched the duos Cult Favorite alongside A.M. Breakups and Armand Hammer at the outset of the next decade. Woods’ Backwoodz Studio issued his first official solo album, Save Yourself, in 2016. Additional ventures include Nostrum Grocers with R.A.P. Ferreira and Small Bills with the Lasso, plus the 2017 film score Bernadette; on the PTP label he issued experimental material such as the 2020 release SEERSHIP!. One of his most introspective statements, I Told Bessie, surfaced in 2022, followed by Revelator in 2024, an album that placed greater emphasis on live instrumentation.
Born Chaz Hall in Queens and raised on Long Island by two musician parents, he put out several mixtapes as Elucid in the 2000s, among them 2007’s Smash & Grab, and appeared on underground hip-hop recordings by J*DaVeY and Tanya Morgan while also joining the supergroup the Lessondary. Preferring experimental backdrops to nostalgic boom-bap, he expanded his output through solo projects and outside collaborations. With producer A.M. Breakups he created Cult Favorite, whose album For Madmen Only came out on Reservoir Sound in 2013. Around the same time he and billy woods began their enduring Armand Hammer alliance, which started releasing material on Backwoodz Studio with the 2013 LP Race Music. His initial proper solo project for the label, Save Yourself, followed in 2016. The next year brought two more experimental efforts, Valley of Grace and Horse Latitude, together with the Bernadette soundtrack. Under the name Nostrum Grocers he and R.A.P. Ferreira, then recording as Milo, delivered a self-titled album in 2018. A joint release with Haj of Dumhi titled No Edge Ups in Uganda appeared via Red Lotus Klan. In 2019 he issued the mixtape Every Egg I Cracked Today Was Double Yolked and a remastered version of the previously tour-only Shit Don't Rhyme No More.
Armand Hammer earned substantial critical attention by 2020, with Shrines featuring contributions from Earl Sweatshirt, Moor Mother, and Quelle Chris. That year Elucid also put out the experimental SEERSHIP! on PTP and formed Small Bills with Andy Caitlin, known as the Lasso, resulting in Don’t Play It Straight on Mello Music Group. The full-length Dirtee Deacon (In T.S.O.Pea), recorded with Tanya Morgan’s Von Pea, arrived in 2021, while Armand Hammer released the Alchemist-produced Haram. Dedicated to his late paternal grandmother Bessie Hall, who died in 2017 and remained an important influence, I Told Bessie came out in 2022; he closed the year with the experimental BRB Gotta Charge My Toothbrush. Cult Favorite returned in 2023 with Sway, Masses, and Armand Hammer issued We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, their debut for Fat Possum Records, featuring production from El-P, JPEGMAFIA, Black Noi$e, and DJ Haram. Elucid’s own first Fat Possum album, Revelator, appeared in 2024 and, like the preceding Armand Hammer record, incorporated more live instrumentation than earlier work.
