Eligh

by Cyril Cordor
An outside-of-the-box MC and producer, Eligh was an important contributor to the development of Cali's hip-hop underground in the mid- to late '90s as he helped construct the sound of his crew, the Living Legends, with his productions. His inspiration for making hip-hop music came in the mid-'80s from the cult classic Beat Street and the LL Cool J cut "I'm Bad." In high school, the Los Angeles-born rapper/producer co-founded a hip-hop duo with MC Scarub called the Boogalu Badboys, but when they crossed paths with another eager rapper, Murs, the three became 3 Melancholy Gypsys (or 3MG). However, Eligh was eventually evicted from his aunt and uncle's home, forcing him to move from L.A. up north to the Bay Area. There, he met aspiring underground rapper the Grouch, which ultimately led to 3MG's incorporation into the Living Legends. Combining his dogged work ethic with the Legends' D.I.Y. approach, Eligh issued almost a dozen LPs within the span of ten years, not to mention providing beats for those outside the Legends camp (sometimes under the producer alias Gandalf), including Company Flow, Pigeon John, and WWE wrestler John Cena. The mid- to late '90s saw the release of self-pressed albums like As They Pass (1996) and Gas Dream (1999); however, in the 2000s, Eligh concocted darker and more cryptic albums, such as Poltergeist (2003) and Enigma (2005). Other than offering more 3MG material, Eligh was involved in a number of LL offshoots as well, including the Righteous Brothers Project and G&E, aka the Grouch & Eligh.