K1NG ELJAY has been sharing his truths in intricate statements for the world to listen to for a few years now, and embraces his most thoughtful self with his latest release “PTSD”. The vulnerability pays off as ELJAY’s musical testimonies highlight an album full of all-star production, features, and the talented Akil Pratt as Co-Executive Producer. As much of a treasure the album is for K1NG and all who listen, it’s also physical evidence of the things the artist endured to get to this point - a rare feat that can only be accomplished by a great musician.
One of Birmingham’s favorite audio artists, who is also known for his gaming streams and “Under The Crown” podcast, first got into the world of entertainment by discussing the works of others. “Initially I started in music journalism. I was pretty heavy during the blog era. I was a music editor for allhiphop.com,” K1NG ELJAY shares, “I got a couple of articles and reviews that were posted in The Source magazine and things like that. So I had a lot of connections that way, which was really cool.” Reviewing grew a little stale after a while and pay was low at the time, so ELJAY leaned into another passion. “I was always making music on the side anyways. Initially it started off with parodies and stuff, and eventually I got interested in making more relevant impactful music. It was a natural progression. A lot of the skills translated over. But I think it started around when I moved to Birmingham actually, when I started to take it seriously.” His friend and fellow musician D Gut played an active role in these early stages. Bonus info: rumor has it the K1NG ELJAY parody videos can be found on Youtube, but you have to know his original moniker.
Things were going well and ELJAY was putting out a steady stream of often collaborative projects that only increased in quality. The musician slowly found himself surrounded by fewer musical peers in the studio, however, which decreased his motivation to continue creating to the point that he almost stopped entirely. Soon though K1NG ELJAY would find “Perfect Timing, ironically, when Akil came along. We became friends, and from the friendship we started making music. I’m very thankful for him coming along the way he did, because I’d probably be just a hermit somewhere (if he hadn’t).” The two have collaborated on multiple stand-out projects now, including “Writing Prompts III”, “Flags On Saturn”, and now “PTSD”. ELJAY had already had Pratt in mind to help share the role of Executive Producer for his latest release, and had no doubt of this path 6 songs into the album. “We really work well together, and I think it came out very well on this project.”
The features on the project are two other talented musicians that relate to the spirit behind ELJAY’s message. inkline of Nerves Baddington fame had K1NG’s attention the moment he first heard the group, and felt the same respect for ELJAY. The two had also recently worked on a song together Nerves’ “Micro/Macro” double-album and were ready to get back to collaborating. K1NG ELJAY asked Annise Courtney to rap on the album after being impressed by the musician’s “Rituals” release, but only hearing her sing when on other artists' features. “A lot of her stories intersected with mine so it made sense.” inkline’s Baddington partner Kilgore Doubt joins a production roster that is led by Akil Pratt and features Anthem, TheRealJoeClark, and KING ELJAY himself.
“I crank out projects really fast. This is the longest a project has ever taken for me to do. I’ve had the idea for this project for well over two years. In comparison 'Perfect Timing' took a week-and-a-half and 'Flags On Saturn' took about two weeks," the musician shares on his approach to penmanship this go-around, “I was very concerned how the perception would be and making sure that it represented the people that live with (PTSD) properly. I wanted to make sure that the story-telling was accurate and it didn’t feel like I was accusing anybody, but just sharing my story.”
K1NG ELJAY’s own past has left him struggling with trauma in the aftermath, and he’s seen it in the lives of many of the people close to him. His wife is a therapist, and her father along with some of the musician’s closest friends have been impacted by PTSD after serving in the military. “Hearing from their stories made it easy to identify the triggers in my story, and I was able to go from that and personalize everything. I just wanted to make sure it was represented properly.” This openness to finding the best path for telling the most respectful yet honest story enabled the project to shift in different directions when the opportunity to grow was presented.
“I just want people to be able to resonate with the music. I want it to be able to hit them where they are, and even if that isn’t the case, understand where it came from. I’m sarcastic. I’m slightly nerdy-well I’m very nerdy in certain situations. I love music, I love gaming - I love all these different elements. But I’ve been through things. I’ve been through a lot of things in life and I don’t look like the struggles I’ve been through. When you listen to the music some of it may catch you by surprise, but just know it’s all coming from a real authentic place. I never lied in any of my songs.”
The vulnerable hip-hop artists telling relatable truths over a catchy beat isn’t what most people think of when they picture Birmingham, but that’s the city many of us know and love. K1NG ELJAY is a part of this beautiful scene, even if he didn’t always think it was where he’d end up. “I was trying to move away from Alabama. I wanted to get out of here, pack up all my stuff, and just hit the highway, wheels on fire, and get the hell out of Alabama,” the artist explains, “That was initially my goal and it took me meeting people here in Alabama who care about Alabama, who wanted to see Alabama change for the better for me to realize all the positive things that are here. It’s really a blessing to be a part of this scene.”
A blessing for us all.
Cover image from Kaiser Sabir
