<\/a>Detroit MC Elzhi made his international debut on \u201cCome and Get It,\u201d a stand out song from Jay Dee\u2019s (J Dilla) debut album, \u201cWelcome 2 Detroit\u201d. The widespread praise for the track led to Elzhi joining the group Slum Village in 2002 and becoming a member of one of the most respected Hip Hop groups in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2009, Elzhi hired a new manager who immediately made enquiries into Slum Village\u2019s contract with E1 music regarding their new album. RJ Rice, the founder of the group\u2019s long-time label, Barak Records (n.k.a. Ne\u2019Astra Music Group) responded by cutting Elzhi\u2019s appearances on \u201cThe Villa Manifesto\u201d LP in half. Ultimately, the label made the decision to remove Elzhi from Slum Village.<\/p>\n

With The JAE.B Group as new management since 2010 and Elzhi\u2019s departure from the record label that is home of Slum Village, Elzhi is now focused on reaching new heights. After a decade of recording, and years of international touring under his belt, Elzhi has the focus and experience to conquer new levels of success as a solo artist and one of the greatest MC’s. Grindin’ recently caught up with Elzhi on his tour of Australia<\/p>\n

Detroit is renowned for its musical heritage dating back to the days of Motown in the sixties and seventies, to Techno in the eighties and Hip Hop now. What do you think it is about the city that continues to produce artists who get out there on a global scale?<\/strong>
\nI think the reason why the music scene keeps alive, we don\u2019t really have any like major labels out here, like major record label companies so in order to survive we got to give 110% to be heard you know? So we\u2019re always trying to push some boundaries of music, whether it be production or MCing.<\/p>\n

Growing up as an MC in Detroit how hard was it for you yourself to stand out from the rest and what did you do get noticed?<\/strong>
\nWell growing up in Detroit, I was a big fan of the open mic scene, so once I discovered like the Hip Hop Shop and the open mic nights where I could get my name known people started recognising that. So around that time, you know, the internet wasn\u2019t really banging like today, you had to really like get a rep in your city man to make some kind of noise and that\u2019s what I did. I just got on at open mic nights, to freestyle\/battle and just became a part of this scene. That\u2019s how I was able to stand above a lot of guys really because I made myself known.<\/p>\n

What were some of the most memorable experiences during that time? <\/strong>
\nMan back in the day like I was in the Hip Hop Shop, and I was freestyling, and it was like strictly off the dome. In the Hip Hop Shop normally when you get in that open mic circle you have to like come off the top of the head, it wasn\u2019t like you wrote something it was a proper freestyle. So I was freestyling and Maurice Malone the owner just gave me a free shirt and that was the first time anybody had got like a free shirt it was just crazy. So that was one of my memorable times when I did open mic.<\/p>\n

When was the moment you could realise you could make music as a career?<\/strong>
\nThe moment I realised I could make music as a career was when I got with DJ House Shoes and we worked on the “Out Of Focus” EP and it was crazy because we didn’t really have a label to put it out, so it was like kind of it circulated through like the city, and somebody from Chicago took the CD and put it on the internet. I wasn\u2019t even on the internet at the time, you know what I\u2019m saying? But that person put it on the internet, it spread it like all around. So you know, there\u2019s people that know about that CD in Japan as well as like Germany, around the time where \u2013 when this particular person had a thing on the internet. Then just the feedback from that let me know that I could really do this as a career.<\/p>\n