Concert Review: Elhae Sings To Sadness And Sex At S.O.B’s

As people of color, at times, it is hard to speak about our depressions. While our communities are covered in terms of their social and historically systemic oppressions, we are not just sad about the past and how it affects our present. We also struggle as individuals; trying to find a personal peace within our spirit beyond our skin. It is in this truth that Elhae arises as a classic R&B artist that sings to the struggle to feel good about yourself, and the baes that  comes into your life to make you feel right. 

Elhae thrives as a performer for two reasons. The first is that he draws his crowd in through their saddened woes and their sensual whims. He speaks about the struggle to love yourself, especially when plans combust or friends becomes foes. Then, he switches topics to croon and promote the sultriest bond that can happen between two people: sex. If there are two things that cross people’s mind a lot it is their sadness and their sex life. Thus, in terms of topics, he has brilliantly and casually mashed the two to create songs that make you want to wipe your tears, call your boo, and make things work., which leads me to my second reason: his voice. 

Elhae’s notes ripple like flags in the wind. He can hold a riff like sand running through his fingers and it only makes your soul run through them, as well. The audience became puddy as  he closed his eyes and delivered every “fall in love/ break-up” song as if they were occurring in the moment. His passionate presentation ignited the crowd like adding gasoline to their emotional fires. The way they responded to his every move confirmed to me that ELHAE IS A BIG DEAL! They treated him like he was the god of their playlists, and with songs featuring Kehlani, Ty Dolla $ign, and Big K.R.I.T, he just might be. 

Elhae has hypnotic songs and a vocality that proves why R&B will never die: it give us too much LIFE! Moreover, his style and swag matches today’s mainstream initiative to set music to an image. From roses, music notes, and clocks that draped his arm as a tattooed sleeve to his shirt of people pictured out with orange color, every visual he used felt purposeful in showing people either keep time or times keeps them. You have to decide what controls what, of which he showed even a cool, philosophical guy, like himself, feels stumped by love’s control. For More Information on Elhae.https://www.elhae.com Click Here