Fresh off the success of The Council Of The Gods’ latest group album, Trilogy, Kingston’s Nomad Carlos is stepping up with Element of Surprize, an album balancing cinematic tales with emotional confessionals about the struggles and victories of the Tri-State area’s Jamaican diaspora. Throughout the project, the self-proclaimed ‘Half Yankee, Half Yardie’ deftly maneuvers between references to classic videogames and films (Blood Smoke & Mirrors, At Will, Rare Breed) and reflections on the importance and meaning of relationships (Shanice, Reciprocate) all with an uncut dose of battle-hardened bars tying the record together.

As befitting a lifetime spent between Jamaica and the US east coast, Carlos switches between hard NY spit and fiery patois at the drop of a dime, sometimes midbar. This same background informs tracks like Solace – a hard look at the sacrifices and setbacks of living between worlds. Elsewhere on Echo, intense, cinematic production provides the perfect backdrop for the type of musings on the complexity of 3rd world life rarely heard in Hip Hop. The album’s thoughtful tone culminates on The Reasoning, a heartfelt conversation with the ancestors that frames Carlos’ personal struggles as part of a multigenerational quest for a better life.

With production courtesy of a murderer’s row of beatmakers equally indebted to classic Hip Hop and the newest sounds, Element Of Surprize is a supremely confident look at the inner life of a poet, one that will equally enthrall listeners of classic records like The Blueprint, Hell On Earth and It Was Written and devotees to the newest crime chronicles of Roc Marciano and Griselda.
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