London-born, Auckland-raised hip hop artist Eliezer Apfel‘s ‘Diary Entries, Vol.1’ feels like he’s put the thoughts straight from his mind onto paper. (A mental image reinforced by the artwork.) The album’s melodic rap style makes it easily digestible for an audience wider than mainstream hip hop fans.

Opening track Alchemy feels like he is summing up his backstory with steadily spoken lyrics over a mellow flowing backing track. The style is similar to that of Loyal Carner. It begins directed at someone else “This one’s for my ski makers, my dream chasers tryna make it”, but it’s evident as the song goes on that Eliezer is sharing his own experiences through this track as well.

With an aggressive, rhythm-heavy focus RI$$ takes a different direction, much less sentimental and more typical of what mainstream hip hop tends to focus on, money, girls, and fame. However, despite the in-your-face lyrics, the rhythm does hit hard in a satisfying way. Only two minutes long it’s not the shortest track here, but reinforces the ‘Diary Entries’ concept, as does the apparent use of royalty-free music backing to Baby I’m A Fool. Creative beats aren’t critical here, it’s more about groove and melody.

Eliezer is a rapper, singer, and songwriter who co-produces and engineers all his music with best friend Jake Lepp, aka Ten.Oh, a Vancouver-based hip hop/RnB producer. The two produced all 10 tracks on this album except for Baby I’m A Fool. The album seems to have two sides to it, one that is more British hip hop, neo-soul influenced, with more mellow tunes such as +64, Baby I’m A Fool, and Diamond Eyes. The other is more aggressive, with a heavier tone present in Fight Club, Duffel Bag and RI$$. Overall it lends the album a sense of being a soundtrack, which again seems to fit with the title’s allusion to a series of musical vignettes.