Creative Juices Music

More hot new music? How about a whole label's worth? Until pretty recently, I was sleeping on these guys, which gave them a chance to create a whole back catalog of ill music I need to check out. In case you've been missing out, too, I'm talking about Creative Juices Music. They got plenty of new talented artists putting out their first releases, including Alucard, Critical and Ide, who seems to be their centerpiece artist. And they've got some established artists signed to their label, including Jise of The Arsonists and UG of the Cella Dwellas.

The label has a surprisingly unified sound... The production is rich and the lyrics are very late 90's. Think of that era when you first heard The Rebel Alliance or Jedi Mind Tricks, or when Canibus was an exciting new artist. The lyrics are smart and sometimes topical, but they still retain that raw hip-hop freestyle nature. All the MCs come with nice lines without sounding jokey, instead remembering to fall back on creativity and flow. They've got a house DJ, DJ Connect, adding first class scratches to their projects. This label is the epitome of "keeping it real" from a late 90's ethic. Hell, this is the label that got The Outsidaz to reunite ("Still In This" features Pace Won, Young Zee and Yah Yah)!

I've recently picked up a bunch of their projects - if you want a good place to start, try Ide and DJ Connect's incredible Ideology and Ide & Alucard's For Fuck Sake album, an ill ode to liquor - but still have a bunch more to score. And if it's still all a little too overwhelming, fortunately they've got a a nice (unmixed) sampler CD (pictured... and better yet, ughh has it in their freebie section, cop it quick!).

The one and only Mista Sinista cuts up a quality introduction, and then we're thrown right into it. New and as-yet-unreleased cuts by their full roster. There are some nice cameos, too, including Thirstin Howl III, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Casual, Steele (of Cocoa Brovas), and Hell Heaven Razah. But the guys you don't know will impress you at least as much as the big names. It helps a lot that the production is some serious, consistently quality stuff. Think of like The Snowgoons or Marco Polo.

There are new songs by UG - and oh shit, he's kicking his "mystic" style material for the first time in at least a decade! Those songs are advanced tracks from his upcoming album for Creative Juices called Portals. Damn, I can't wait!

Seriously, I got a bunch of their discs (yeah, unfortunately they're all CD and no vinyl... the one downside to this outfit) all at once, and I'm just putting one in after the other, and each song is as impressive and exciting as the last. Fuck, why didn't anybody tell me about these guys earlier? They've got a website, so you can check it out here for more info. Or maybe all you guys reading this are already completely up on them, and I was the only jerk sleeping. Heh