Timeless yet inescapably modern through its one-of-a-kind lens, BLK ODYSSY’s BLK VINTAGE­ – which with eerie emotion and groove-stricken rhythm, meanders through the broadest of soulscape, funkdom, and raw hip-hop nuance, transporting its listeners to a dank yet swanky, overdressed and outspoken jazz club – wound up defining the most experimentally successful corner of 2021. BLK ODYSSY – led by the artist formerly known as Sam Houston, whose real name is Juwan Elcock – the Austin-based transcendentalist who floats across the very idea of genre at will, minted a gem with his first go under the new moniker, taking the identity shift in stride as he reinvented not only he and his band’s own sound, but that of music at large where a certain swatch of impossibly talented musicians aren’t pushing boundaries, but defying them altogether.

 

Many have come across the project in the months since its release, and many have drawn lines to D’Angelo and the Vanguard, .Paak and the Free Nationals, and Badu, citing the legends’ brash experimentalism adjacent to ODYSSY’s own. And many have been right in their justification, seeing an instrumentally founded, stylistically gray area masterpiece handily strewn with a vocal range, a rapped poeticism, an unapologetic individuality, and a socially rooted discourse that only some of the rarest historical talents can convey in balance. But that rare individuality is ultimately one without parallel. BLK ODYSSY’s influence, and that of BLK VINTAGE will grow and bloom further with time, just as its experimental predecessors have seen with all of their early, trailblazing work.

 

In fact, it already has. BLK VINTAGE has a reprise.

 

Not all albums deserve an expansion. Most don’t. And most great albums don’t need one. It’s a risk to take what is already masterfully immersive and unendingly listenable and attempt to build upon it further. But for BLK ODYSSY, whose BLK VINTAGE debut has become the highest of jumping off points from which to launch an artistic rebrand, the project’s deserved success has caught the right attention, with which studio time and collaboration has allowed an additional five tracks to surface, and to ultimately, poetically expand it into an album-length rework on what was already the most dauntingly unique debut, and the most addictingly bold EP to be released a year ago.

 

One of the names brought into the fold was an early influence on ODYSSY. Juwan Elcock and his brother Jordan – BLK ODYSSY’s guitarist – grew up around Parliament. Their father was a roadie. So, when George Clinton caught wind of BLK VINTAGE and swooped in on the reprise’s leading single, BENNY’S GOT A GUN, it wasn’t only a full circle moment, but a window into BLK ODYSSY’s inspiration, seamlessly bringing Clinton’s dynamic funk into focus and bridging an epochal gap in the process. And it was brought even further into detail at the hands of Griselda’s Benny The Butcher, who spits a poetically enlightened verse that does more than prove his rapped prowess, but deepens the socio-culturally motivated id at the center of BLK ODYSSY’s creation. Diving into the trauma of gun violence and its effect on community’s, Benny plays the role of the affected on both sides, painting a landscape for anyone listening of just the mindset that has been crafted across cultures of violence like the United States. Not just great music, but music that makes a point, and potentially even a difference.