Musician and rapper Erick Elliott, a.k.a Erick the Architect, began his career with the New York psychedelic hip-hop trio Flatbush Zombies, but over the last several years, he stepped out on his own and moved to Los Angeles.
His new solo album, I’ve Never Been Here Before, ranges from hip-hop to house to psychedelic soul, and features big-name collaborators like James Blake and Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton.
The tracks tell the story of his introduction to music as a child and his family’s role in the journey.
“Each [family member] had their own special taste in music. And I was always listening. And I was like, ‘Man, I want to be like that one day.’ And as much as I hid it from my family, I was secretly crushing on the idea of being an artist.”
He continues, “I was doing graphic design and animation and coding and really nerdy computer stuff, which I'm still good at. They wondered why I wanted to throw that all away to live in a car and drive around the world and make a dream come true. It seems silly when you're a kid until you really make your parents and your family understand that this is something that you're going to do regardless of their approval or not.”
Those themes are highlighted in “Ezekiel’s Wheel,” which includes vocals from George Clinton. Elliott met the famed musician at a photoshoot just a few weeks after writing the track.
“Because we wanted him on it so bad, before I knew that this phone call was gonna come through, we did an imitation of what he might say.”
He continues, “When I met him, I talked about music, and we took the photos and I said, ‘Hey, man, you probably hear this all the time, but I'm a huge fan. My mom put me onto your music, and I would love your blessing to get on my album.’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure, no problem.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He didn't even hear the record yet. He was like, ‘Whatever it is, I know it’s gonna be good. You're a good dude.’”
As a New Yorker, transitioning to life in LA and working with Angelenos on the record brought a different energy to the music, Elliott says. That includes a collaboration with Compton native Channel Tres on “Ambrosia.”
“I have no choice but to be submerged in the culture. New York is an amalgamation of all cultures, so one of my best assets is really to find myself no matter where I am. So I think the freedom of California … you can walk 10 minutes and see some mountains. We'll go to the beach. Those definitely helped my writing and made me feel less contrived or trapped by some of the things that might have been holding me back a bit in New York City.”
Elliott pays homage to his Jamaican heritage via his alter ego: the Mandevillian. The name is derived from Mandeville, the mountain city his dad grew up in on the island.
His girlfriend coined the term on a trip to Jamaica, where she said Elliott was in his “villain era” because he was no longer holding back his opinions: “All these moments started to come to me where I was like, ‘Well, instead of denying that's how I feel sometimes, I'm gonna adopt that. And that's gonna become an alter ego that I tap into when I feel insecure.’ I feel like I'm doing too much or too little. There's an unwilling part of you that says, ‘Well, this is okay because you really feel this way.’ And you have to sometimes champion your own ego because it's so easy to get distracted by other people's lives and what they want.”
The persona appears across the album, including on “Beef Patty,” a dancehall track where he sings in patois. James Blake produced the song, as well as three others on the album.
“[Blake] played that riff and I was like, ‘Yo, this sounds like reggae.’ And then we wrote a song I recorded, and I remember one particular thing he told me was when you rap or when you sing on his part, use a different part of your voice. And I think that's unconsciously when I started to create this character.”
“I’ve Never Been Here Before” tells the story of Elliott’s introduction to music as a child and his family’s role in the journey. Courtesy of the artist.