Four Wing Killa

I'm starting to become a regular reporter on the musical stylings of Joejas, because I've got his latest here for you today.   Left Handed Bandit is the third Joejas album I'm covering, but his fifth overall.  I've already introduced him to you guys, so I won't waste time making the same, easy Tyler the Creator comparisons.  But I did just throw his name out there quickly to give a quick reminder of the rough ballpark we're, musically.  And as with his previous projects, everything is written, produced and performed by Joejas himself, so there's a real self-expressive auteurist vibe to the whole project.

It's also a pretty short album, checking in with only nine tracks and those only totaling about 20ish minutes.  But that works in its favor.  One gripe you might recall I had with some of his previous songs was that they were, "too comfortable to just ride the rhythm of a repetitious hook.  I ran low on patience a couple of times just wanting him to keep it moving to the next rap portion."  That pacing stuff's not an issue here; apart from an entirely instrumental track near the end, this whole album moves at a tight clip.

It takes some risks, too, which I appreciate.  "Run!?" is a bit of a rock rap cut, featuring crashing drum cymbals and crunchy electric guitar riffs, echoing those 80 electric guitar-infused jams like "The Fuck Shop" or "The Girl Tried To Kill Me."  But of course where those are juvenile sex songs, Joejas's is a decidedly more thoughtful exploration of the pressures to succeed: "Question I have lately/ Making sure regrets don't chase me/ Mouth talk while the mind still hazy/ So for now, regrets can't phase me/ The happy and free one, the shoulder to lean on/ Might say just: amputate me!/ ...How many times did you feel you couldn't run/ Not from these problems, but these goals you wish would come?/ They tell me time is tickin' if I ain't sort my mission/ In they time they givin'.  But fuck that, this my own vision."  "Off Kilter" dips back into some of those 80s rock vibes, too, but this time meshed with an old Miami bass element.

Other songs hew closer to his earlier work, but Joejas is always switching up the tone (sometimes mid-song; his beats never rest as simple loops), and his topics.  "Left Hearted Bandit" gets into relationships and the difficulty connecting, "Last 108 Ride" is about skating or something (honestly, I don't get all those references) and "WTF" is more of a time honored rapper's state of the union: "finna go global, check my first LP/ And the name of the band. Nigga, that's all me/ Keeps it hassle free."  Fans of Joejas will definitely be happy to see him living up to all the promise of his earlier material and continuing to deliver; and even new listeners in the mood for something artsy, youthful and experimental might find this to be a good point to dive in.

As with his previous CDs, this includes a full-color booklet with the lyrics and a page to draw your own picture.  A poster and bandit face-mask are also included.  I notice he's released his last two albums on vinyl, too, since I covered them; so maybe a Left Handed Bandit LP will drop down the road, too?

Real Hip Hop By the Original

Some of my favorite records to spotlight on this site are overlooked comebacks of classic old school artists, especially when they're good.  And that's what we have here: "Real Hip Hop My Man" by Original M.C. Jazzy Jeff on Pow Wow Records from 1988.  That's the Jazzy Jeff from The Funky Four Plus One, not the cut maniac.  It must suck to have your rap name jacked and usurped in the public consciousness to the point where you have to change it so you don't get a cease and desist from the new kid's label.  Jazzy Jeff should never have to have amended something like "Original M.C." to his moniker, at least not until joining Instagram.

Anyway, this record is produced by Frank Inglese, who did a bunch of records on Pow Wow and has a few other sporadic credits.  I'd say his signature is a raw, hard drum heavy style, and that's definitely what's on the menu here.  We're also left to guess how much credit goes to him for this track, Jeff himself who also has co-production credit, and DJ Bass Master Ace, who I've never heard of before or since.  I mean... there is a Miami Bass Master A.C.E. who sang freestyle stuff in the 90s, but you wouldn't think he's the same guy.  Well, whether he is or isn't, here he's only credited with cuts, but this entire track is made up of samples (a pitched down Ultimate Breaks and Beats drum track with James Brown horns for the hook), so the whole track may've been birthed out of his personal crate.  That's certainly the tone of this record, like it's being created and performed live right before your eyes.

Either way, a signature aspect of this song is the scratching and the DJ mixing in various samples throughout the record, so he's a key player no matter how you cut it.  There's a big scratch breakdown and everything.  It's all to the theme of the song; even the titular line is a Grandmixer D.St. line being chopped up for the hook.  Jeff's rapping about bringing the real Hip-Hop (except for the last verse, where he goes off on a tangent about the variety of women he's dated), and then it's being cut into the song, everything from the "Mardi Gras" bells to DJ Hollywood's singing about "that yummy yum yum."  At one point they're scratching in Eric B and Rakim ("def with the record"), which always strikes me as too new, but then you remember this record is from 1988.  He's even rubbing in James' "brand new funk" line the same year the other Jazzy Jeff famously did.  I wonder which came first - could this be an intentional call-out?

In many ways this is an old school throwback, but the stripped down instrumental and Jeff's hardcore delivery gives it a more modern sensibility.  I guess his flow isn't really all that different from when he was on Jive (not counting the love songs and all that), but without all that hip electric production behind him, he comes off a lot more raw.  You can almost imagine this record was originally written for Just-Ice or somebody rather than a member of the disco era's Funky Four.  Jeff does still have a bit of that older radio DJ inflection to his voice, but it just lends that extra authenticity you want when you call up one of the OGs.

There's just the one song on this 12", though in addition to the full Club Mix, there's a shorter Radio Version (which thankfully retains the DJ breakdown), Instrumental and a Dub.  This comeback was a one-off for Jeff, and unfortunately he never tried again.  "King Heroin" is his most famous solo song, but this is better than that or any of what he put out on Jive.  He has stayed in the game as a legend - like he jumped on for a track on Grandmaster Caz's Mid-Life Crisis - but this is the last Jazzy Jeff record, which is a shame, because sure, he sounds "old school" but he's also proven he can hang in Hip-Hop's different eras.  Like, I'd argue "The Ghetto" was pretty cutting edge for 1984 and "Real Hip Hop My Man" is a strong record for 1988 even if you had no Funky Four nostalgia or even any idea who he was.  Dammit, there should've been a whole Jazzy Jeff and Bass Master Ace album.