New Music To Know: Elijah Blake Finds Inspiration in the Darkness

November 6, 2014 10:47 AM

By Courtney E. Smith

Elijah Blake is not a household name—at least not yet—but he’s already won a GRAMMY. It was in 2013 for his part in writing Usher’s hit single “Climax” and it kind of messed him up. So much so, that you can hear it on his latest release, the Drift EP.

Fans who heard his earlier work, like his single “X.O.X.” with Common or Rihanna’s “No Love Allowed,” were perhaps surprised at the dark turn his latest material, which came out this fall on Def Jam Records, took. From the moody production reminiscent of the Weeknd and his confessional lyrics, Blake is a left of center star in the ever expanding hip-hop universe.

In person, Blake is an upbeat, positive kind of person. A Gemini, who is in possession of a dual nature. Blake is quick to admit that his success was the source of the sadness and loneliness he tapped into for his latest release. His own demons showed him a glimpse of just how easily a person can push beyond darkness into suicidal thoughts. Though, he himself never got that far.

“I was in a place where I felt so alone,” Blake tells Radio.com of his first brushes with fame. “People on the outside [felt] less of a need to say, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Are you okay on the inside?’ People thought I had it all figured out…They just didn’t know the battles I was fighting.”

Drift takes us, as Blake describes it, “behind the scenes” and delves into his psyche in a deep and honest way that is simply not customary in songwriting these days, no matter the genre.

On “6,” Blake recounts growing up with an abusive father: “Six years old and I lied about the school grades / I told my mama that my daddy already reprimanded me/ And when my father found out he beat me with a belt of leather/ Until my arms bled open and it caused my back to bleed.”

“I pray that my mother never watches the video,” Blake says. “I know that she heard the song and she cried.”

The song is based on Blake’s own childhood and says his father’s ideas about discipline played a strong role in why his parents split up. But, even now, Blake doesn’t characterize him as a bad father, rather, he calls his ideas about spanking culturally influenced and “unjust.”

“There’s a fine line,” Blake says. “Because I went through it, I know how it feels to be on the receiving end and how painful it is, feeling like you can’t tell anybody. But at the same time, when a parent doesn’t discipline their child they’re a bad parent as well…I don’t ever want to point fingers. I sympathize with the child more so, because I was the child in that situation.”

The darkness of Blake’s music is amplified by the production work of No I.D., Blake’s musical mentor. Blake goes as far to call him a “big brother.”

The two hooked up when Blake came to L.A., after growing up in Florida. He crashed on the well-known producer’s couch, finding himself attracted to the man who worked with other hip-hop outsiders like Kanye West and Jhené Aiko.

“You would think that he would get tired of breaking the non-typical artist,”Blake says of No I.D. “Just the fight that he put up for my journey, I’m exhausted by it…But he doesn’t want to take any short cuts, he’s told me that from the beginning.”

Blake’s song “Strange Fruit,” is an example of what No I.D. is fighting for.

“People think ['Strange Fruit'] is strictly about sex, which is funny because when ‘Climax’ came out people that that was about sex too and it has nothing to do with sex,” Blake says with a smile.

Instead, Blake says the song is about how people will do the things they say they won’t — be it substance abuse, gluttonous indulgence, lying or stealing. The song aims to capture that moment when a person will betray everything they stand for, simply for self-gratification. It’s heady, clever songwriting of the sort that not many vocalists can pull off.

“The goal with Drift was, whether you liked the songs or not at the end of the day you walk away with an idea of who Elijah Blake is,” Blake says.

And who Elijah Blake is, is a very complex artist.

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