Juno Recommends Hip Hop / R&B November 2020

Review: Handsome Boy Modeling School is an American duo made up of hip-hop beatmakers Dan the Automator of Gorillaz association and rince Paul from projects with Stetsasonic, De La Soul and Gravediggaz. Dan the Automator assumes his DJ Octagon Palais for the opera here - a hard hitting and deep cut rap with plenty of manic DJ scratching and big stabs. Handsome Boy Modelling School then link up for the flip side 'Holy Calamity' which is another floor filler with bold brass and mad scratching. Both tunes hark back to a golden era of rap and will get any floor pumping.

Review: Currently in the throes of a serious reissue mission, bringing many of his old funklets back to life on wax, Jalapeno mainstay Danny Soopasoul lets these very cheeky takes on Mr Illmatic out into the ether. Side-A is pure laid back west coast vibery while the B lays Nas's famous bars down over a Bill Conti-style horn arrangement where the feel of a montage and a triumphant stair-run is imminent. Limited to 300 copies, it ain't hard to tell you how quickly this will fly.

Review: Record Store Day 2020 keeps on serving up the gems even weeks after the official date itself. Here we're presented with the debut release on Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons now seminal Def Jam label. It's a vital release that truly shook the world thanks to its dark and evil bass and raw, hard hitting percussion and has never before been released on 7". It is a true collector's item for raw hip hop heads and features the ground-breaking 'Scratch Party Death Mix' as well as coming with its own fully iconic sleeve. Drop this one and step back to watch the club go right off.

Review: Nas's 2002 album God's Sun is not his most iconic, but it still spawned some essential singles Chief amongst them is 'Made You Look', built around samples from Incredible Bongo Band's 'Apache.' The tune really established him in his ongoing battle with Jay Z and like all his work it displays intricate lyricism and old school boom bap beats. The free-associative rhymes touch on an array of themes that cover a wide span from hype to legacy, partying and chest beating self congratulation. The flip includes an instrumental that is not explicit like the original, so lacks some of the things that make it so raw.

Review: Stetasonic was a short lived American hip-hop group who managed to put out three strong albums in their short time together. It was a remix of their 'Talking All That Jazz' by Dimitri From Paris that resurrected interest in the group in 1998 and now this 7" continues to shine a light on the often forgotten group. '(Now Ya'll Givin' Up) Love' is a hard hitting beat with a tense atmosphere. The crashing hits and reverberating drums break only for big stabs to light up the groove, all the while the biting rhymes keep on coming. An a cappella is provide don the flip for more adventurous DJs.

Review: After making a big splash with the first release back in June, the Edits label is back with another hard hitting 7" that is designed to blow up ay dance floor. Once again it comes from Casual Connection. 'Hip Hop Drank' is immediately recognisable as the bassline is currently doing the rounds on a TV advert. Here it's overlaid with some sleazy raps and raw, deep cut drums. ON the flip it's 'Humble Hop Hop' which mashes together two more big and iconic beats and raps into something even more powerful than the original.

Review: Mr Bongo is back with more stone cold hip-hop. This one comes from 1991 and is a reissue of a UK only 7" from Black Sheep. The single was always a curio and remained in the shadows of the more catchy and commercially successful 'The Choice is Yours' but it does have a great hook and tumble-down charm to the production. Dres is the MC bringing the character and plenty of carefully dug out samples make this one standout above many of its peers. An original copy of this will set you back a fancy few quid so when you also add in the break fuelled remix on the flip you have an essential little pick up.

Review: Stetasonic was a short lived American hip-hop group who managed to put out three strong albums in their short time together. It was a remix of their 'Talking All That Jazz' by Dimitri From Paris that resurrected interest in the group in 1998 and now this 7" continues to shine a light on the often forgotten group. '(Now Ya'll Givin' Up) Love' is a hard hitting beat with a tense atmosphere. The crashing hits and reverberating drums break only for big stabs to light up the groove, all the while the biting rhymes keep on coming. An a cappella is provide don the flip for more adventurous DJs.

Review: Beastie Boys Music is a new greatest hits compilation album that serves as a companion to 2020's Spike Jonze-directed Beastie Boys Story and 256-page photo book, Beastie Boys Book. The double vinyl affair takes in 20 classic tracks that span the iconic group's more than 30 year career, with the biggest of the big such as 'No Sleep', 'Sabotage' and 'Intergalactic' all making the cut. By now these are well worn classics, but their impact on rap cannot be overstated, and the tunes still get any party banging thanks to the immediacy of the beats and sharpness of the rhymes.

Review: A decade has passed since Slum Village jumped on a KVBeats instrumental and delivered "We Do It", a warm, sweet and bass-heavy number full of the Detroit act's usual on-point rap flows. Here the track is given a 2020 makeover courtesy of hired hands DJ Spinna and Jazz Spastiks. Spinna naturally opts for a distinctively "Golden era" vibe, laying the Motor City crew's raps over a relaxed, head-nodding beat rich in jazzy double bass samples, crunchy snares and woozy electric piano chords. The jazz Spastiks up the tempo on their flipside version, delivering a revision that's closer in tone to Slum Village's original while offering all manner of subtle differences and dancefloor-focused touches.

Review: He may now be a bona-fide global celebrity with a string of books, TV shows and film appearances to his name, but Action Bronson remains a fine rapper - even if we don't hear those skills as much as we once did. If you still need convincing, check out Only For Dolphins, his first album on two years. His love of trash talking, tall tales and classic boom-bap style flows has not changed, but his subject matter is more varied. The beats he raps over have evolved significantly, too. Over the course of the album, there are fewer bog-standard "golden era" type backing tracks; instead, you'll find killer beats that offer nods towards Brazilian samba and MPB, reggae, smoky jazz and Latin music.

Review: There is a sketchy feeling to the 20 tracks that make up this short but super sweet record, which is a debut from Dallas-raised, Los Angeles-based vocalist Liv.e. Each one captures a certain feeling, an in between moment, an exact second in time that you wish could last a lifetime. Emotions are rich throughout, and range from longing to anticipation, eagerness to anticipation. Musically raw, loose and impromptu, it's part neo-soul, part jazz, part hip hop, but all golden, with vocal deliveries ranging from spoken to sung to rapped. The whole thing passes by in a moment, but it feels unified from front to back and makes a truly lasting impression.

Review: God's Son was recorded in 2001 and 2002 and went on to be the New York hip hop icon's sixth studio album. The record was partly produced by Eminem, partly inspired by Nas's on going beef with Jay-Z, and also the death of his mother. As such violence, religion and stark emotional experiences all colour the lyrics and have led to the record being thought of as one of his most personal and honest. Just a month after it was released, the album was certified Platinum for shifting more than a million copies. It kicks off with one of James Brown's most iconic beats of all paired with some smooth flow from Nas, and the quality never dips from there.

Review: It seems astonishing that 17 years have passed - and much water flowed under the proverbial bridge - since Dizzee Rascal released his groundbreaking debut album, Boy In Da Corner. The man himself seems to think so too, because E3 AF, his seventh album, sees him return to his East London roots via a set that's every bit as vibrant, inventive and exciting as his breakthrough debut. His rhymes - and those of the numerous guest MCs littered throughout the set - are naturally on-point, dexterous and lyrically inventive, while the beats they ride expand Dizzee's original raw, bass-heavy grime blueprint via nods to trap, UK garage, dubstep and dancehall. As many critics have pointed out, the result is the Bow-raised mic man's best album in years.

Review: He may now be a bona-fide global celebrity with a string of books, TV shows and film appearances to his name, but Action Bronson remains a fine rapper - even if we don't hear those skills as much as we once did. If you still need convincing, check out Only For Dolphins, his first album on two years. His love of trash talking, tall tales and classic boom-bap style flows has not changed, but his subject matter is more varied. The beats he raps over have evolved significantly, too. Over the course of the album, there are fewer bog-standard "golden era" type backing tracks; instead, you'll find killer beats that offer nods towards Brazilian samba and MPB, reggae, smoky jazz and Latin music.

Review: Ultra-Boogie Highlife was Funkghost's debut album, rebased 20 years ago in March. At the time it came on his own independent label and despite picking up plenty of critical cali it was actually something of a commercial sleeper, Listening back now it's hard to see why - it has some of the buttery D'Angelo sweetness that made that artist an icon, as well as crisp boom bap beats that setup there with the best of them. Nowadays the original is a hard to find classic so this reissue will be a big relief to fans of this underrated gem.