Today, ELUCID — the NYC underground rap stalwart known for his own solo work as well as Armand Hammer, his duo with billy woods — and the veteran producer Sebb Bash share “Make Me Wise.” It’s the second track from I Guess U Had To Be There, a new album out March 13 via Backwoodz Studioz  and globally distributed by Rhymesayers / Secretly Distribution.

Listen to “Make Me Wise” here, and pre-save / pre-order I Guess U Had To Be There here.

Following the as “eerie, minimal glide” (Stereogum) of lead single and album opener “First Light,” “Make Me Wise” creeps further into the spectral realm, backed by uneven progressions that evoke an orchestra performing in a slanted room, the cycle of tension and disorientation only leveled out by ELUCID’s unmistakable flow.

Fresh off a run of acclaimed projects and tours, ELUCID’s lyricism here is razor-sharp, spiritually fractured, and boldly imaginative — deep-listening hip-hop powered by the kind of performance critics and fans will dissect for months. Sebb Bash, aka The Alchemist’s favorite producer, delivers a world of tense textures, dusty futurism, analog tape grime, and unexpected swing — a landscape custom-built for ELUCID’s shape-shifting cadences.

There are moments in music when masters of their craft cross paths at the height of their respective powers — records like Madvillainy, Liquid Swords, Dr. Octagonecologyst, and Hell Hath No Fury — where the result is more than the sum of its parts. ELUCID and Sebb Bash find themselves in this heady, seemingly effortless mode on I Guess U Had To Be There. The beats shift and flip under ELUCID’s feet but he tightropes it all, delivery nimble as a mountain goat, producer and rapper moving in perfect synchronization.

Some shining stars make memorable appearances: billy woods, Breezly Brewin, Estee Nack, Shabaka Hutchings. But this is a two-man show, and the duo keep the spotlight where it belongs for a captivating, convention-defying listen. So fresh it sounds like it was made tomorrow, but bet money you could put this on in ’89 and get heads bopping.

Ever-prolific, ELUCID is an independent icon in the midst of a peerless run. I Guess U Had To Be There follows ELUCID’s “enthralling” (MOJO) 2024 solo album REVELATOR. Pitchfork described it as “soul food for those who know a better world is possible if we’re willing to fight for it,” while The New York Times, in naming REVELATOR one of their Best Albums Of 2024, called it “a dense, overdriven, fiercely abrasive album that cranks up the tradition of Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad productions for 21st-century impact.”

With Armand Hammer, he and billy woods keep delivering masterworks: 2025’s Mercy, produced by The Alchemist, marked “their seventh stellar album in a row” (The Quietus). The project was deemed “cinematic and unsettling in the best way possible” (HotNewHipHop) and “the type of free-flowing brilliance that can only spring forth when every artist involved is totally in sync” (FADER).

Mercy was the first Armand Hammer album since 2023’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, a project that The Observer (UK) described as “an exceptional record that deserves your time and headphones” and The Line Of Best Fit deemed “their headiest and most impressive work thus far.” Meanwhile, Pitchfork just included Armand Hammer’s 2017 album Rome in their 2025 list of The 100 Best Rap Albums Of All Time.

ELUCID will be on tour throughout 2026 throughout Europe and North America with Armand Hammer. See full itinerary below.