Retrospect: Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium by The Underachievers | 2014

The New York duo’s debut album brought new ears to their conscious rap message.

Image via Apple Music

Laying The Foundation

The repeated narrative of high school is that it’s a time where you find yourself. You start to realize what your true interests are and your personality is constantly on display. You also start to build a reputation for yourself. One of the biggest aspects of the former is your music taste and this is often shared among people you associate with.

Or sometimes — your personality is based around the fact you don’t listen to what the masses listen to. You believe your taste is better and you believe only “real music lovers” know about the people you know about. You’re not pretentious about it though, it’s natural for you.

This was high school for me.

One of the most prominent artists in my MP3 player at that time were people from Beast Coast. A supergroup consisting of Pro Era, Flatbush ZOMBiES and The Underachievers, I viewed these guys as the revitalization of “real rap.” As someone who had seen their fair share of “ILLUMINATI EXPOSED” videos on YouTube, this supergroup was right up my alley — they knew what was really going on too.

I was put on to Flatbush ZOMBiES first by a friend of mine named Marcus Lathan (who is also a producer named Lord $wank) and clicked on the video for “Herb Shuttles” by The Underachievers after seeing it in the related videos column.

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This changed everything for me.

The Drop

The Underachievers released their debut album Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium on August 12, 2014. This album followed their debut mixtape, Indigoism (which actually dropped on my birthday) and the follow-up, The Lords of Flatbush, both from 2013. Before I could even hear the music, I was already blown away by the cover and rollout. The cover was inspired by The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s cover for Axis: Bold As Love and I thought the illustration, done by artist Pencil Fingerz, was mind-blowing. It lined up perfectly with the third eye talk in the duo’s lyrics.

Image via Apple Music

The tracklist reveal was done through a passage in which each of the one word track titles was woven into it seamlessly. If my memory serves me right, each track title was capitalized within the passage. This blew my mind back then and I still think it’s one of the coolest ways to do a tracklist reveal ever.

The album was exactly what I wanted it to be. Some of the songs were more hype and others were more calm but they all resonated with me lyrically. Again, as someone who was very much anti-mainstream rap, I just felt it in my soul when Issa started “Metropolis” with “Death to the radio nigga, this is where that saga ends.” I felt it just as strongly on “Chrysalis” when AK said “Timeless repetition, them lies in pages visit / Surprised we are the victim, society’s secret mission / But ain’t no, motherfucking way I’ll let them take my soul nor abduct my brain.” because I just knew I was smarter than the people around me.

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When this album dropped, I remember how many people echoed the sentiments I felt. People were loving how The Underachievers were instilling confidence in the self, awareness of society, unification among like minded individuals and a disdain for government authority. Multiple other people my age felt a connection with the album due to it reflecting many ideals we already had or had developed through their previous music. It was different from the boom bap heavy approach of Pro Era and wasn’t quite as “weird” as Flatbush ZOMBiES — yet it still reflected the universal themes of the Beast Coast collective. I never viewed myself as “lost” in the world I lived in but with self confidence already being instilled in me as a child and people around me praising me for the way I looked at things, I basically viewed the album as the soundtrack to my personality.

11 Years Later

Upon my relisten for this piece, I realized something: It’s not as deep as it was to me when I was 17. The positivity of the messages remains relevant and the songs still hold up well from a pure listening standpoint. The hard songs are still hard and the lyrical content is still relevant with the commentary on society remaining accurate.

But, from a technical standpoint, there are small flaws. When Issa goes into a fast flow, sometimes his words run together, making them unintelligible. I actually remember only noticing this on one song back then but it actually happens multiple times.

I also noticed just how often both of them use the same vocal filter to make it sound like they’re talking on a mic that’s being heard through a phone or maybe a walkie talkie? Maybe it’s supposed to be in line with them being on different frequency or spreading a message only meant for a specific group of people. Or maybe, as some listeners noted back then, it’s just a mixing/mastering issue. Again, I remember thinking it was cool in some moments back then but I didn’t realize just how often it happened.

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The duo keeps the conscious and third eye bars prominent throughout the project which are intertwined with motivational bars. In retrospect, they are quite surface level but again, at 17, surface level was enough for me. I remember often using various lyrics from the project to motivate and inspire people in my life and essentially using that as a segue to introduce people to their music. Even with the surface level aspect, it doesn’t change the fact that what is being said is true. Since this album, both Issa Gold and AK have released solo projects that delve much deeper into their mental states which show growth from the groundwork they laid here.

Other songs go into more aggressive and threatening subjects, leaning more towards the trap lane they’re inspired by. These songs are naturally more accessible and the third eye bars are still there but delivered in a different way. However, the message doesn’t get lost, it’s more of a sugar with the medicine approach if you will. AK’s rapid flows excels strongly in these moments injecting the song with a burst of energy.

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But even over a decade later, the production still holds up. Just over half of them have a similar template of a melody that sounds mystical, eerie or “trippy” and energetic drums that match up with the aggressive fast flows the guys use on them. I remember being obsessed with the tracks like this and using many of them to test just how much my $10.99 headphones from Walmart could handle. Still, it was refreshing to hear things calm down significantly in the last quarter of the album. These songs have softer melodies that are calmer and more reflective allowing more room for the lyrics to breathe and sit with the listener.

Conclusion

Issa Gold said the name “Cellar Door” was meant to “represent new openings and depth of thought” and “Terminus Ut Exordium” translates to “the border of the beginning.” With this album being their debut, this is on the nose but fitting. After hearing two mixtapes from the duo, this was the beginning of the journey into their album discography. It was also the introduction for people previously unfamiliar with them to their world of third eye awareness, psychedelics, the indigo movement and more.

While not constantly seen on the Topsters that cover social media daily, this album is a classic to me for nostalgic reasons. I see it as a “you had to be there” moment in time. The Beast Coast movement was in full effect and people were enamored with just how much quality music that was different from the mainstream that was coming out of New York. This album helped people see that lyricism did not have to come with production that echoed 90s hip-hop standards but could be bump just as hard as other things in the current rap world. Cellar Door was an album that helped reinforce the self confidence I would carry as I got older and remains a pivotal moment in the soundtrack of my life.