The cryptic abstract rapper is back at it again with futuristic hip-hop beats and catchy lyrics like “must find fried fish its Friday”. ELUCID has grown incredibly as a producer and has presented us with fully fleshed out beats and soundscapes that sound like the world is ending.

ELUCID is currently trailblazing an entirely new sound in Hip-Hop; the combination of his ethereal flow and cadence, far out lyrics, and atmospheric beats, make for a sonic experience that is simply only occupied by him.

The first track “THE WORLD IS DOG” lunges us into the dystopian world of REVELATOR. The whole song sounds like a foreboding countdown to eventual planetary demise.

Fast paced and gripping, this song unapologetically takes you to places that are uncomfortable and urgent.
“CCTV” featuring Creature, my favorite track on the album, must be what it feels like to be in the climax of a horror film. A particularly haunting lyric “even rebels gotta pause when blood spills so casually,” a ghoulish reminder that war has become so nonchalantly accepted.

This track is filled with powerful quotes, especially in the outro when ELUCID melodically exclaims “All power to oppressed people. Red light on the virtue signal for the come latelys. Escalate since we done waiting. Take freedom”.

On the fourth track “BAD POLLEN”, we are graced with a spirited Billy Woods’ verse. Woods, the other half of Armand Hammer, has become a sequential feature on ELUCID albums; the songs he’s featured on usually become album highlights and fan favorites.

Both artists’ verses are full of pondering lyrics, sprinkled with beautiful use of imagery like when ELUCID says “Earth a greedy bitch, whose cup is never full. Insatiable pours.” and Woods’ lyric “I can’t throw off this malaise. Count the days towards what? I don’t know but I know I’m not afraid.”

ELUCID describes life on earth as unapologetically ruthless and unfair, taking and doing whatever it wants to you, and continuing to do so until death. Woods, in a similar light, raps about an endless feeling of malaise that seems to be plaguing many of us.

None of us are sure of our direction or purpose, yet we remain steadfast in the pursuit of it. In what may seem a seriously grim track, and album as a whole, occasionally we’re met with comparatively more lighthearted and humorous lyrics like when ELUCID says “Pulling from a poorly rolled spliff. It’s mine and it’s hitting”, a simple but profound sentiment.

At the latter half of the album, we’re greeted with a seriously intimate and romantic meditation “SKP”. The sound and vocal cadence share similarities with “Split Tongue” on ELUCID’s 2022 studio album I Told Bessie.
The last feature on the album is from Skech185 on the track “14.4”. Skech185 spits with a vicious ferocity, complimenting an already intense instrumental.

On the beat switch, ELUCID drops an absolute lyrical gem “I’m in ya sundown town holding my di*k dolo”; ELUCID makes it clear he’s not afraid of bigoted oppressors and where they decide to cowardly congregate.
REVELATOR is no doubt ELUCID’s best project to date, and likely one of his most conceptually concise, but that’s a running theme in just about all his previous works.

This album is filled to the brim with hard hitting and thought-provoking lyricism and is easily one of the more progressive hip-hop albums of 2024. Overall, I think REVELATOR is a trail blazing masterpiece and bound to be an underground classic.

Album score: 9