Steve 'Flash' Juon“2021 I couldn’t keep my head up
2022 I finally got some cheddar
Gon’ be 2025 and life couldn’t get no better”
I just checked the calendar. It isn’t “gon’ be” any more, it IS. Rappers date their songs accidentally with dated pop culture references, but Elijah Policard wants you to be absolutely clear he recorded this late in 2024 when it was ABOUT to be 2025. I’m not sure what made that level of specificity necessary but if that’s his artistic vision so be it. That vision also seems to include an American flag burning in the background of every “visualizer” for his album “War Ready.” I suppose given the week this review is being published people may read something into that… but I guarantee you it’s a coincidence.
Even though “War Ready” has 18 tracks you can get through the entire thing in 38 minutes, which means most of his songs are two minutes long and a few are even shorter than that. Mr. Policard is from the school of singing rappers so that’s something which will also unintentionally date tracks to a specific era of time. “U Want That?” clocks in at 2:05 and finds Amiri questioning his own life choices. “I think it’s time for a different lifestyle/back then I wanted fame, I get aggravated by the hype now.” I’ll be honest and say this surprised me. I’m not used to rap artists who do this style of music being introspective or contemplative, but he straight up tells us he’s “fighting his demons” here.
The other surprise for me was that Amiri goes solo the majority of the time. He’s got two songs with OsamaSon and one collaboration with Internet Money that yielded the single and music video for “Keep It Cool.” Even on this one he’s the clear star by far, so much so that I’m going to be honest and say I don’t even know why I.M. is listed as a feature. I can’t figure out what they did other than either show up for the shoot or finance it in some way.
I wasn’t prepared to like “War Ready” and even now I find myself a little unsure about it. His bio cites both Future and Lil Keed (RIP) as influences and you can definitely hear it in his style, and imitating their successes got played out a long time ago. Despite that I can’t help but notice Elijah Policard is more than surface deep. I can’t tell you if that’s inches or miles. In a genre filled with trapping, pill popping and dead bodies though, I sense that Amiri is more thoughtful about what he’s saying and what message he wants to convey than some of his peers. That alone engendered my respect and the short length of his songs is to his benefit as none of his tracks overstay their welcome. Amiri’s alright by me.