Juno Recommends Hip Hop / R&B: November 2023

Review: New Jersey, Brick City hip-hop legend Beneficence, and UK based producer duo Jazz Spastiks, unleash a treasure-trove of talent with the release of their collaborative album Summer Night Sessions. With a jazzy street feel and slick-written, soothing, intellectual lyrics, it's the Ill Adrenaline co-founder's eighth full-length. He's heard reusing his trademark lo-fi, jazzy boom-bap stylings, and reminiscing on early comeups in the 90s DIY underground, finding solace in models of grandeur set by the likes of Biggie and Puff Daddy and making analogous movements in the present era.

Review: DJ Deviant kicks off a new series entitled Skum and Villainy Edits Vol 1 here that will find him digging deep into a diverse range of genres to cook up his own new jams. Elements from rock, hip-hop, and funk all feature here as opener 'Intergalactic Rockit Fuel' mashes up famous cuts like DJ Shadows' 'Rocket Fuel' and The Beastie Boys' 'Intergalactic' as well as a Herbie Hancock classic. Jurassic 5 feature in cut up form of 'House Party Rocker' to make this a block-rocking package well worthy of inclusion in any serious DJ's collection.

Review: The Alchemist and Larry June say they 'followed what felt natural' when writing this one and the results are organic and absorbing. This is the CD version of the pair's new album which finds them combine forces for this smoother than silk outing on Empire that brings the best out of both. The Alchemist is a veteran producer who has worked with a who's who of hip-hop over the years, and June is a Bay Area rapper with a real touch of class to his work. He can rap about anything from gourmet food to art, teaching people how to hustle, or whatever else.

Review: The Pimpala West Coast Classics series does exactly what it says on the label, delivering tidy 7" singles featuring new edits of much-loved 90s West Coast hip-hop gems. This time round, the scalpel fiend at the controls is Ronnie Frazzle. He first turns his attention to Snoop's Dr Dre-produced mega-hit 'Gin & Juice', a delightfully laid-back 1993 number that's often cited as one of the finest moments of hip-hop's "golden era". Over on the flip it's all about DJ Quik's 1992 Profile Records single 'Jus Lyke Compton', an even more laid-back and groovy affair that pays tribute to the notorious LA neighbourhood that became the focal point of the enormous "gangsta" hip-hop scene of the 1990s.

Review: Amerigo Gazaway is something of a master of the mash-up and has been turning out his carefully considered collisions of popular beats for some time. Now he digs into his archives to unearth - what he sees as the best and most sought-after gems for Soul Mates B Sides Remixes & Rarities Vol 1 & 2. This superb double album features choice cuts from very hard-to-find if not entirely out-of-print vinyl as well as some firm favourites and a couple of formerly digital-only tracks that now make their way exclusively to wax for the first time.

Review: The Geto Boys' 'Mind Playing Tricks On Me' remains a stone cold and in demand classic so it's great it has been reissued once more here. First time around, this bonafide classic reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the highest charting tune from the Geto Boys. Sampling Isaac Hayes' "Hung Up On My Baby", the Geto Boys' edit plays out in several movements and goes big and small. Stretched over a long-legged beat with crisp snares and languid chords with lyrics that touch on a range of deep subjects such as post-traumatic stress disorder, the track was originally destined for a Scarface solo album before it was decided it was more valuable as a Geto Boys single.

Review: DJ Shadow has done it all in his career, from groundbreaking debut album Entroducing.... to high-profile collabs with Nas and Run the Jewels and adventurous and alternative explorations of rhythm on more recent albums. His seventh full-length finds him going totally solo once more, looking back at his long relationship with music and 60,000-strong record collection. He explores all sorts of moods and glovers from drum & bass to breakbeat to juke and hip hop, all with a polished digital aesthetic and bright sense of melody. The best tunes for us though, are the more tender and introspective ones like 'Forever Changed'.

Review: Joji (George Miller) debuted his first album-length solo project Ballads 1 in 2018, after reviving the formerly semi-private moniker whose first incarnation could originally only be found on YouTube. At first, Joji was a low-key outlet, via which the onetime internet comedian (popularly masquerading as Filthy Frank) could explore his sensitive side, in the form of lo-fi beats and whisper-sung verses. Popular intrigue in the Joji alias led to a hugely popular impetus for Miller to release more music under the name, justifying this album's impressive corralling of the production talents of his favourite fellow artists: Trippie Redd, Clams Casino, D33J and Shlohmo. Now reissued, not for the first time, on an indie exclusive version via GLXY, Joji is more than living his introspective side down.

Review: On The Inside is the debut album from acclaimed Leeds dark jazz and funk trio, Gotts Street Park. A genre-hopping odyssey with silky production and an impressive set of guest collaborators, the album is an intended sonic diary of everything their relationship as a band encompasses, both as collaborators and close friends. Following up their more studio-oriented compendiums 'Volume One' and 'Volume Two', this album is more of a personal invitation into their own practice space, though it also does just as well to channel original Motown influences and provide ample space for featuring artists Rosie Lowe, Pip Millet and ENNY to flourish.

Review: Actively wanting to distance himself from his divisive debut projects 'Goblin' and 'Bastard', American rapper and internet personality Tyler, the Creator pulled off a major tonal shift with 'Wolf'. Featuring his first high-profile features, like that of Mike G and Erykah Badu on the simmering 'Treehome 95', Tyler put it on record that he just wanted to make music for people to get high to as opposed to the aggressive, angsty hardcore angle on 'Yuckers' that got him famous. That doesn't mean that Tyler is dead, 'Jamba' and 'Tamale' still have that crunch for the old-school fans, but 'Wolf' shares much with its successor 'Cherry Bomb' in its awkward transitional sound leaving them as outliers in critics 'Best of Tyler' lists.

These are both amazing albums, with the rare praisers of which earning nothing but respect because, in all honesty, every Tyler, the Creator album is incredible - despite what the self-deprecating genius himself may say.

Review: Dan Ubick is best known as Connie Price, generally found playing with his band The Keystones. But here he's been invited to indulge in a different kind of pursuit by none other than Madly and Stones Throw driving force Egon. They started the Madlib Invazion Library Series to invite certain talented friends to indulge a particular sound in the particular mindset of library music and for Ubick that meant exploring the depth and breadth of something he calls canyon funk. The name is quite explanatory and here you get some heavy funk grooves laced through with Ubick's twanging guitar for a sound which splits the difference between country and funk and comes off sounding like the consummate library album in the process.

Review: Public Enemy are often unsung when it comes to the golden era of hip-hop, with the obvious names getting all of the press. Despite their huge success with 'It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back', you don't hear Public Enemy acknowledged in the canon nearly as much as you should and it's a shame. The braggadocious bars, the heavy beats and the now-outdated concept of a hypeman all culminate in one of the greatest acts of the generation, who really were speaking to black youth in ways hip-hop wouldn't again until A Tribe Called Quest and Lauryn Hill came to town. 'Yo! Bum Rush the Show' was where it all started, an extreme talent in lyricism and delivery from Chuck D is elevated to the stratosphere with hype-man Flava Flav, undoubtedly the greatest to ever do it, and the Bomb Squad's wall of samples production. Tracks like 'Timebomb' and 'Sophisticated Bitch' are instant classics, and this indie-exclusive colour pressing is an amazing way to celebrate hip-hops 50th birthday.

Review: Originally released in 2016, just one year after his major label breakout GO:OD AM; the fourth LP from the late, great Mac Miller showcased a remarkable pivot from quick-witted, slightly offensive alternative hip-hop bangers to a more introspective and vulnerable style of neo-r&b. Written whilst in a relationship with pop megastar Ariana Grande (who also features on the record as well as being credited for the inspiration to the track 'Cinderella'), the project focuses on both external romantic love as well as love of the self and one's surroundings. With an impressive guestlist featuring Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak and Ty Dolla Sign, and exuding Miller's first declarative foray into more nuanced, melodic and lush soundscapes, the album remains an outlier in an immensely expansive discography, which sadly still feels as if it was only just beginning to blossom before Miller's tragic and untimely passing.

Review: American great Redman is about as decorated as hip-hop wordsmiths come and that legacy was assured almost from the moment he sealed his debut album, Whut? Thee Album in September 1992. It mixes up East Coast, hardcore and psychedelic rap styles with production taken care of by Pete Rock, Parrish Smith and Erick sermon. Now considered a classic and one of Redman's best albums, it features plenty of humorous lyrics and funky production with booming drums undermining each of the cuts. Vocally, Reedman does it all from lover to fighter and back again. It all makes for a party record with a difference.

Review: Mike Skinner's evolution alongside his band The Streets has been a fine one that has very much told the tale of youth culture from his early party days to more emotionally aware works and on to this new album The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light. It features Skinner being less slavish to tight and coherent rhymes that make immediate sense and instead cutting loose, allowing his language and references to be more free and abstract. Guests include the likes of Jimmothy Lacoste and many other fine young talents. More than 20 years after his debut, Skinner is as sharp as ever here.

Review: Kool Keith is something of an outsider rapper, having garnered a huge legacy not for himself not as the result of huge cosigns or mega-album deals, but many a contribution to the underground under a plethora of different guises and characters. His latest LP, Mr. Controller, flaunts this penchant for experimentation via a massive - dare we say planet-eating - range of tunes ranging from dancehall to dub to trap to boom-bap. All of them hear Keith rap elegantly but nonchalantly, unintimidated by the resulting sonic twists and turns.