MIXTAPE REVIEW: Ellipse “This Is A Test: Volume 1″


Posted by LG | Published September 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm

So when RapRise debuted this mixtape, I kept a close eye on it’s stats, and I must say the numbers that Ellipse does are a bit impressive. Still I kept my distance. And then, I noticed he was a fellow Chicago-bred MC. Everything stopped, and I took a listen to This Is A Test: Volume 1. It’s short and sweet, but I must say Ellipse reps The Go fairly well.

Chicago is home to many great MC’s, and like New York and Los Angeles, it is pretty hard to catch a break. You will always be compared to the greats that came before you. To step outside of that shadow could mean suicide or success. Ellipse has seemingly taken the path of the latter. It is quite hard to catergorize his style. He’s a little B.o.B., a dash of Cool Kidz, and an ounce of Kidz In The Hall. You would instantly put him in the backpacker realm from the first listen. But I realized that Ellipse is slightly more commercial. He is almost made for a dance track that turned out to have a positive message.

The project opens with the misplaced “Beginning”. It is pretty much spoken word – and truly does not belong on the tape in my opinion. If it opened with the second track “Whatchu Tell Em?”, it would set a much better tone, and give the listener a better feel of what they will be getting when they listen. Everything that follows is a blast. Ellipse spits over tracks that cross styles, and gets applauded for picking some rather classic tracks as well. His bars are about various things that don’t really stray from normal rapper talk.

My only gripe is that the project lacked direction. Though I was clearly in tune with Ellipse’s cadence and light-hearted rhyme style, I was still unaware of what kind of artist he was. My hope is that Volume 2 digs a little deeper, and stays consistent with whatever Ellipse is trying to tell his audience. Once he does that, I think this kid will be one to watch. He’s fun, and he definitely has skill, but as a rapper, I want to see him push himself. I think that is when we will get the beast inside of Ellipse to come out.

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