Words by Christopher Kevin Au //

West Sydney rapper Elijah Yo solidifies his place as one of the country’s best emerging storytellers with his sombre new single, ‘Missed Calls.’

Elijah Yo has been on our radar for awhile – last year, he jumped on board with homegrown hip-hop label WVS as part of their ‘Next Gen’ program, standing proudly alongside local talents like Jessica Jade and Kid Pharoah. In December, Elijah slid in with one of our favourite singles of the year in the acoustic-driven ‘Pharmacy,’ finishing off the year with confidence.

Now, Elijah returns with ‘Missed Calls,’ a track written about a tragedy that occurred two years ago. “In 2016, a high school friend of mine committed suicide. It hit me hard because I didn’t realise the impact it had. I knew I was going to make a track about it, but when the time was right,” he says. “Sure enough, leading into the end of 2017, suicide was reoccurring in the community… I wrote the track in hopes that it could help prevent this happening in the future.”

Elijah raps pensively and candidly on the overcast track, and while the slow piano keys put ‘Missed Calls’ in down-tempo territory, that doesn’t make it any less confronting. It’s a brutally honest single that’s driven home by the haunting ring of a phone that’s never picked up, and a missed call that’s never returned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIx62mIQD4&feature=youtu.be

The track is just a taste of Elijah’s debut mixtape B Side to be released on May 9th, which tells more stories from his roots in Blacktown. Before that arrives, Elijah will be performing on his home turf for The Burbs on April 12th and 19th, and following it up with a set at Sydney On The Mic on April 20th.

Watch ‘Missed Calls’ below, and be prepared to hear a lot more from Elijah in the near future: