Check Ill Lyricist Blitz the Ambassador at Highline 6/15

Talented hip hop diplomat, Blitz the Ambassador Monday, 6/15 at Highline Ballroom. Blitz is dope so pick up his new album, Breathe, check the live show and link Blitz' tracks @ www.myspace.com/blitztheambassador

Below is a review of Blitz performing material from his new album earlier this year.
Blitz the Ambassador @ Lyricist Lounge

Blitz the Ambassador
By Starryeyeslie
It's not easy to make a name for yourself in hp-hop, especially if you are an non-conformist . Yet, give 25 year-old, Blitz the Ambassador one show and you'll understand why this quietly ecstatic, Ghanaian born, Mid-West educated, Brooklyn resident is being called the diplomat of underground hip-hop.
Much, like the ventilating lyrics of Talib, Black Thought and Mos Def, Blitz’s rhymes carry the urgency and purpose of a mutiny on contemporary hip-hop. Like celebrated black music innovations of eras past, Blues, Rock and Jazz, Hip-Hop was once a fresh, original sound challenging accepted genres. Yet, despite its roots and versatility, contemporary Hip-hop is virtually incarcerated by an insipid redundancy of greed and assembly-line assimilation.
“Radio is the death of Hip-Hop,” says Blitz of the inspiration for his third album, Suicide Stereotype, due to release in May.
Performing tracks like, Kill the Radio, a mosh-pit worthy, brass mash-up of lyrical rage, the yet unsigned, internationally acclaimed artist murdered the stage at Saturday’s Lyricist Lounge in Manhattan.
Blitz' tempo is right on time and lyrically, he delivers an avalanche of worldly reflections and astute observations with swift celerity and unapologetic honesty. Illuminating histories our society frequently shoves under the rug of oblivion to dismiss and dust aside with disposable gloves, Blitz rouses invisible ghosts of hero soldiers, Katrina victims and hopeful immigrant workers, grinding for a promise of clean water and a living wage in the familiar dream entitled Home.
Blitz’s, massive presence devours the stage in a frenzy of passionate rhyme and percussion playing that explodes like an artful bomb. At times, his delivery is so slow he’s nearly singing. At others, he demonstrates a lyrical dexterity so swift and incisive that fans are left in awe:
“Got to admit it homey you need me,
Tired of watching the same videos throwing remotes at the TV
Like damn- what you gonna do when I let it go,
Turn it out when you hear it bang on the radio
Give it up, gotta be the flow so critical
Opposite of original, you rhyme so pitiful
Slow down Blitz these kids are dyslexic
Got a whole horn section when I’m banging with Optiks”
Yet, Blitz has more to give his audience than lyrics alone. There is an element of candid intimacy, when Blitz, an equally talented percussionist, throws back his head, closes his eyes, and appearing nearly orgasmic under a sheath of sweat, jams with the band.
Over seventies infused beats from producer Optiks, the heavy horned band supports Blitz’s garrulous rhetoric with sax, trumpet, trombone, bass, and drums like the opposing pleasantry of complimentary colors. The result is an irresistible consonance, a synthesis of brass that pushes like a hard-hitting drug, then draws back coyly, until the crowd begs for more.
Blitz, who studied marketing in college, understands the role of visual aesthetics. “I had to keep it classy,” Blitz says of the band’s stage image. Dressed in slacks, tuxedo jackets, and stiff oxford shirts, the sneaker-fresh, Mohawk rocking, all male, six-piece ensemble is unquestionably hip-hop, yet reminiscent of old-school acts like the Rat Pack, Miles and Coltrane.
“I was a fan of Hip-Hop before I became an artist,” Blitz tells the crowd in Hands of Time, a reminiscence drawing on twelve classic hip-hop melodies that's so wicked that it's already being called the best tribute in history by a host of hip-hop aficionados. Watching fans at Lyricist Lounge bobbing collectively, eyes wide, hands cupped over smiles of awe and disbelief, it’s easy to see why Blitz is expected to ambassador an improved age of hip-hop.
In a newly forged era of pan-continental diversity, ethnic complexity, and exigent change, Blitz the Ambassador’s voice of authentic consciousness may just be the cohesive agent required to bind the fabric of Hip-Hop’s future.
Copyright 2009 by Starryeyeslie