Money Making Jam Boys - The Prestige: Jam Boy Magic
Known, (and perhaps feared), as the Money Making Jam Boys, their first mixtape, The Antidote, quietly slipped below the radars of most Hip Hop fans. This time around, Black Thought and his crew of Philly All-Stars including Dice Raw, Truck North, and P.O.R.N., alongside newest member, Atlanta native Sugar Tongue Slim, team up with streetwear brand 10 Deep to release The Prestige: Jam Boy Magic; the result is an eighteen track whirlwind of multiple flows over a smorgasbord of beats. The mixtape itself moves at a furious pace, separated only by intermittent shout outs by the rapping individuals, who each have rhyme styles and cadences varied enough for listeners to easily differentiate between when the debates of “who killed what” start to form. That said, these debates are sure to be heated as none of the five emcees slack on any of their performances. These are pure-bred lyricists; they’re less concerned with coming up with the best punchlines or overarching statements than they are with finding the perfect harmony between words and beats. However, none of their lyrics come across as overly-preachy or “underground”, which is what I feel is wrong with Slaughterhouse, another rap supergroup. There is no deep, underlying message; there is no movement to be pushed, and there is no hype to be built. This is Hip Hop in its most technical form; this is nerd rap without the nerds.
Pacific Division - Mania
In Mania, the California trio come together once again to produce another Summertime soundtrack. Opening strong with “The Mirror”, the three emcees trade introspective verses, ‘I like to get high but its great to be sober/ Yesterday was hard but it made me a soldier,’ over a joyful string section sample before jumping into a plethora of songs with their distinctive blend of braggadocio and playful misogyny. Like, Mibbs, and BeYoung switch up the mood for a bit with ‘Nobody’s Perfect’, reminding us to keep our head up over an irresistible piano-laced backdrop and soothing female chorus. After that, its back to regular business for a while as the trio rips apart Lords of the Underground’s ‘Chief Rocka’ instrumental before going in on the minimalist ‘Your Fucking Song’. ‘Saved’ brings the mood back to uplifting with its bouncy piano and a chorus that hearkens back to their Church League Champions days, ‘Man I just got paid/ Put your hands in the sky like you just got saved’. Mania mixes the playful sound Pacific Division is known for with a few tracks with a distinctive West Coast Bay Area bounce that adds a welcome freshness to their repertoire. Their album, Grown Kid Syndrome, may not have a release date just yet, but Mania should hold you down for the Summer.
Following up on his phenomenal 2009 release The Warm Up, Roc Nation’s rising star J. Cole let loose a 19 track monster of a mixtape that not only furthers the belief that he is one of Hip Hop’s premier lyricists and double threats, but also shows his potential for crossover appeal.
Friday Night Lights starts off almost exactly like The Warm Up; J. Cole speaking sincerely over a soft piano instrumental about struggles and triumphs. The only difference is that in The Warm Up’s opening, his introductory speech is not filled with the same level of self-confidence as his speech in his latest effort. You could say that Friday Night Lights is J. Cole’s thesis paper, and his thesis statement can be found in the opening track’s final line, “what good is being the one when you the only one who knows it?” A fitting analogy because for the rest of the mixtape, J. Cole does nothing but support his argument by attempting to convince everyone else that he is in fact, “the one.”
The vast majority of Friday Night Lights is produced by J. Cole himself to great effect; he has a knack for crafting beats that compliment his rhyme style enough so that they provide a solid backdrop without taking the listener’s attention away from his lyrics. As far as his skills on the microphone are concerned, his ability to balance typical rap braggadocio with stories of self-doubt, women problems, and inner-city struggles is nearly unmatched by any of his up-and-coming peers. His lyrical style has always come across as “hungry,” and is captured perfectly in his “Back to the Topic Freestyle” where he juggles multi-syllabic rhymes, clever metaphors, Notorious B.I.G. interpolations, and even Drake’s own punchline flow with remarkable ease.
Speaking of Canada’s export, despite firing vague verbal barbs at each other for months, Drake and J. Cole met for one of the most anticipated collaborations this year in the middle of Friday Night Lights with “In the Morning.” Drake put in a modest effort at best, whose lazy flow is dwarfed by J. Cole’s much more animated delivery. However, this doesn’t detract from the fact that this is one of J. Cole’s more important songs of his young career; in an effort to give his upcoming album more attention, “In the Morning” is directed more towards potential female fans to increase his fan base, a demographic his peer Drake seems to have understood to a tee. “In the Morning”, along with the mixtape’s bonus track with Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music family, encapsulate what J. Cole attempted to do with Friday Night Lights; broaden his fan base by making female-directed songs and collaborating with established artists while maintaining his incredible level of lyricism.
One of the year’s best all-around mixtapes, Friday Night Lights satisfies long time J. Cole fans’ appetites for new material in anticipation for Cole World while at the same time turning new heads to see just what Jay-Z’s signee is capable of. Word of advice; don’t sleep on the one that you’ve been dreaming about.
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West has been on a roll; between stealing the show on respected artists’ albums, amassing a G.O.O.D. Music empire, and making outlandish, but always quotable statements on Twitter, it’s a miracle he found the time to lay down the biggest Hip Hop release of 2010. Despite half the album already being leaked during the last couple of months leading to its release, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy fails to disappoint.
Since the release of the near rap-less 808’s and Heartbreak, West’s lyrical performances have seemed to have taken on a life of their own. His energy is unparalleled and he litters his verses with hilarious punchlines and metaphors that leave you scratching your head as to how he got to this level since The College Dropout; the concepts are all there, but Kanye has taken their execution and delivery to an entirely new degree of arrogance and charisma. Whenever he decides to slow it down, the result is either playful (Devil in a New Dress), engaging (Runaway), or vulnerable (Blame Game). His versatility is undeniable and whether he’s rapping about putting pussies in sarcophaguses or about racial profiling, you can’t help but be drawn into his performances to the point that you forget he had a hand in production as well.
After a surprising introduction by Nicki Minaj on the first track, the opening keys come in accompanied by a rousing chorus before the drums start to kick and the piano is reduced to haunting background noise as West seamlessly flows over his orchestral production. After trading verses with Wu-Tang’s Raekwon on “Gorgeous” over an eerily constructed guitar sample, Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy takes us through a few G.O.O.D. Friday releases; giving those without internet connections a taste of what they’ve been missing and rekindling veterans’ bewilderment at Nicki Minaj and Jay-Z’s show stealing verses over creeping strings and some of the most frenetic drum arrangements constructed this year. Things slow down for a bit as West gets a little help from Rick Ross who constructs visions of grandeur over a gorgeous vocal sample before Pusha T of The Clipse lends a verse to the track with the best hook I’ve heard in a while. “Blame Game” finds West pairing up with John Legend to spin a tale of industry love and closes with a hilarious skit performance by Chris Rock. The album closes with what you could call the album’s weaker tracks despite a heartfelt verse by West on “Lost in The World”, a small blemish on an otherwise phenomenal album.
Kanye West kept the world waiting, and slowly fed the crowd’s appetite; doubts may have been cast when he revealed the menu, but the main course was more than satisfying. So now, who’s ready for dessert?
After popping up on the Hip Hop world’s radar with their Green Room EP early last year, Houston-based quartet (Christolph, Free, DJ Candlestick, Easy Yves Saint) The Niceguys follow up with the release of their full length album The Show. First time listeners expecting to hear the trunk-rattling, syrup induced sound that Houston Hip Hop is known for will immediately be surprised at The Niceguys’ latest effort; with its upbeat and soulful production and lone emcee Easy Yves Saint’s creative approach to lyricism, The Show is easily one of the most well rounded releases of the year.
Production duties are split between Christolph and Free who are eager to craft their beats to match the mood of Easy Yves Saint’s lyrics and delivery. On the opening track, the gradual rise of the crowd noise against the backdrop of the soft keys builds anticipation and creates the illusion that a show is indeed about to start. Horns run rampant throughout the better half of the album (Toast, Victory Lap, Members Only) and infectious guitar riff samples (Things Ain’t The Same, Cave) are sprinkled in here and there for good measure. Although the album’s production is done well enough to force any capable lyricist to take a back seat, Yves Saint’s energetic and unorthodox flow demand attention and multiple rewinds.
You can compare Easy Yves Saint’s rhyme style with Lupe Fiasco’s, however, there are a few big differences; Yves Saint is much less “conscious” in his raps. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, think of a much more technical Slum Village, “Am I squinting from these trees or this Japanese denim?” Yves Saint’s verses can also at times be shoddily put together in a way that his metaphors fly over the heads of listeners, or are just too hard to follow to really enjoy, “Call it my corporate calling card, corner they coins of paper corpses with coined phrases, Yves Saint’s the culprit”
That said, The Niceguys have put together a great release that you can easily play from beginning to end and should guarantee that they take their show on the road. Don’t sleep.
After numerous delays and after almost everybody had lost interest, Ski Beatz quietly released his debut album 24 Hour Karate School in late September. Choosing to remain behind the boards for the entirety of the album, Ski enlists a melting pot of rappers from blog favourites (Curren$y, Jay Electronica), to underground mainstays (Jean Grae, Joell Ortiz) and glorified weedheads (Wiz Khalifa, Smoke DZA), fresh faces (Stalley, Rugz D Bewler) to everyone in between (Ras Kass, Jim Jones). The end result is an album with a sound as varied as the emcees it features. Opening up with the official single, “Nothing But Us”, Ski’s triumphant horn sample sets the stage for another vintage, if not typical, Curren$y and Smoke DZA collaboration before moving onto the much more frenetic “Go” for some classic braggadocio and materialism courtesy of Jim Jones and Curren$y. The album reaches its high point on the third track when Jean Grae, Joell Ortiz, and Jay Electronica take on “Prowler 2” and live up to the album’s name of Karate School by roundhouse kicking rhymes over an already neck-snapping Ski Beatz production. From this point on, the album continues its onslaught of impeccable production, but suffers from lyrical performances that simply aren’t able to keep up save for a few exceptions. 24 Hour Karate School then closes with two instrumental tracks that were originally supposed to feature Hip Hop hero Mos Def if not for music label drama. Internet-savvy listeners however, should be able to find the original versions with Mos’ verses intact with no problem, although the album itself does suffer greatly from his lack of presence. Although Ski Beatz’ debut may not have lived up to the amount of hype it gathered, there is no debating his prowess as a wizard behind the production boards. But if he ever decides to re-open the doors to his dojo, his best bet would be to find some more Bruce Lees, and less Steven Seagals.
rb | west end | twenty