Juno Recommends Hip Hop / R&B May 2020

Review: Classic Brooklyn hip-hop alert! First released on 12" way back in 1995, Smif-N-Wessun's "Sound Bwoy Bureill" is a golden-era treat. It sees Tek and Steele - then fresh faces on the scene rather than the grizzled veterans they are today - spout forth over a killer beat produced by Evil Dee and Mr Walt. That beat is sparse but heavy, with crunchy kicks and snares being accompanied by little more than reggae vocal samples, moody chords, occasional electric guitar notes and a suitably deep bassline. You can hear it loud and clear on the flipside instrumental version, though it also provides a near perfect bed for the duo to showcase their flows on the superior A-side vocal mix.

Review: Over recent months and years, Bristol-based DJ/producer Boca 45 has served up more donuts than an average branch of Krispy Kreme. To continue the metaphor, we'd say that his latest - which features guest rapper Craig G on side A - is one of those 'premium' ones with fancy glazing and a gooey centre. "Turn It Up Loud" certainly delivers in instant hit of energy and a sugar-rush, with Craig G turning hype man over a notably crunchy, early Beastie Boys inspired beat from Boca 45. Flipside "Blow Your Mind" delivers similarly sweaty and crunchy drums, with rock riffs and breakbeat lifts being joined by tight scratches and all manner of dusty-fingered vocal samples. Just like a real donut, it will leave you bloated but happy.

Review: These are buoyant times for leftfield hip hop rooted in experimentation and lo-fi sonics, and here comes Denzel Curry returning with a serious lesson for all newcomers. Hailing from Carol City, Florida, Curry has been dropping pure fire for more than 10 years, but his current form is pushing him even further into the global rap conscious. Kenny Beats is taking no prisoners on the production, while Curry's righteous anger gets processed, re-pitched and mashed up and still it lands every blow. Moving through skits, mad samples and heavyweight tracks, this is everything a visionary hip hop LP should be.

Review: Last year Chopped Herring Records offered up a fine album of vintage demos from Massachusetts MC La Da Head Toucha, a rapper who never quite hit the heights commercially many expected he would. That was not for the want of trying though, and his double A-side 1997 debut remains a much-loved underground hip-hop classic. Here it gets the reissue treatment, appearing on seven-inch for the very first time. A-side "Too Complex" is superb, with La Da Head Toucha delivering Q-Tip style flows over a sparkling, golden-era beat that makes great use of Don Blackman samples. Flipside "It's Your Life" is a deeper affair built around a slightly stripped-back beat which is nevertheless a bona-fide head-nodder.

Review: It's been a while since we last heard from Shabazz Palaces, the suitably cosmic, experimental and otherworldly musical collective helmed by former Digable Planets mic man and producer Ishmael Butler. Remarkably, "The Don Of Diamond Dreams" is Butler and company's first album for over three years. The good news is that it's every bit as inspired as its predecessors, with Butler spitting conscious lyrics and singing spaced-out R&B choruses over beats that variously mix and match elements of future soul, spiritual jazz, exotica, glitch-hop, experimental electronica and intergalactic jazz-rock. It's perhaps a little more polished than some of the crew's previous albums, but it retains and expands on their inspiring, hard-to-pigeonhole musical blueprint.

Review: When he sat down to write and produce "The Fun Ones", his first full-length excursion since 2017, veteran beat-maker RJD2 set himself some rules. Firstly, he would be bound by no genre rules, and secondly, he would only select "fun" tracks for the finished set. The result is an album that's as giddy, vibrant and exciting as they come, with RJD2 fusing scratches and crunchy hip-hop beats with self-made drum breaks, rousing funk instrumentation, psychedelic rock flourishes, choice samples and some fine, analogue-sounding synthesizer motifs, making this one of his most instantly entertaining works to date.

Review: XL Recordings founder Richard Russell has been rather busy of late. First came the publication of his memoir, "Liberation Through Hearing", and now this: the follow-up to his 2017 debut album as Everything Is Recorded. Like its predecessor, "Friday Forever" was produced and mixed by Russell but also contains contributions from a wide range of artists including Ghostface KIllah, Penny Rimbaud, A.K. Paul, James Massiah, Infinite Coles, Irish singer-songwriters Maria Somerville and Kean Kavanagh, and a host of new-breed British MCs. There's a concept behind it - the sound-tracking of a night out and the weekend that follows - with the music brilliantly joining the dots between hip-hop, neo-classical, soul, proto house, reggae, jazz and much, much more. That it not only holds together but also makes perfect sense is testament to Russell's growing skill as a producer.

Review: Recognize Ali and Verbal Kent are both hugely successful underground hip-hop MCs in their own right, so seeing them join forces as Dueling Experts for this debut album on Mello Music Group is more than a little exciting. It's rather good too, thanks to an attractive mix of solid boom-bap backing tracks (carefully crafted by fast-rising producer Lord Beatjitzu) and fine conscious raps from Ali and Kent. At times they trade verses, while at others they join forces or deliver solo spots that expertly showcase their individual rap styles. The result is an album that has the feel of a future underground hip-hop classic; certainly, it's a set that the heads won't want to miss.

Review: It's been a while since we last heard from Shabazz Palaces, the suitably cosmic, experimental and otherworldly musical collective helmed by former Digable Planets mic man and producer Ishmael Butler. Remarkably, "The Don Of Diamond Dreams" is Butler and company's first album for over three years. The good news is that it's every bit as inspired as its predecessors, with Butler spitting conscious lyrics and singing spaced-out R&B choruses over beats that variously mix and match elements of future soul, spiritual jazz, exotica, glitch-hop, experimental electronica and intergalactic jazz-rock. It's perhaps a little more polished than some of the crew's previous albums, but it retains and expands on their inspiring, hard-to-pigeonhole musical blueprint.

Review: Due to popular demand, Quelle Chris' superb 2015 album "Innocent Country" has finally been given a vinyl release. Previously only available on digital download, the 33-minute set sees the Detroit MC and beat-maker join forces with producer Chris Keys for a densely layered, impressively imaginative and well-crafted "soundtrack to self-meditation as an escape from reality". Musically, the sample-laden beats tend towards "stoned head-nod" territory, with Quelle Chris' insightful and occasionally introspective verses offering reflections on life that go beyond the usual rap tropes. If you've not come across the album before, we'd heartily recommend it: as 21st century underground hip-hop sets go, it's one of the most honest and musically intriguing we've heard.

Review: Over the years, Melchior Sultana has delivered some seriously good - and seriously dreamy - deep house. Here he takes things in another direction, applying his fluid keys-playing, drowsy chords and noted ear for melody on a decidedly downtempo collection of jazzy and laidback cuts. There's much to enjoy throughout, from the slow-motion R&B beats, hazy chords and spacey synth solos of opener "Space", and the pitched-down space boogie warmth of "The Cold Game", to the Dilla-ish head-nodding instrumental hip-hop of "Piano Player" and the twinkling bliss of "From A Soul", where starry melodies and fluid piano lines tumble down over a chunky, bass-heavy beat.

Review: It may have been released digitally six months ago, but Kanye West's "Jesus Is King" album - his 12th solo set in total - has finally made it on to vinyl. By now, most will have already heard it, but for the uninitiated "Jesus Is King" sees West meditating on Christianity, offering up a tight 27-minute set of tracks that draw influence from (or explicitly sample) gospel music in all its forms. It's still a hip-hop album of course, it's just that the beats, musical choices (gospel choirs, loops from killer records by gospel soul act The Whole Truth etc) and lyrics are closer to the black American gospel tradition than anything West has released before.

Review: While MC/singer Quelle Chris and beat-maker Chris Keys' first collaborative album, 2015's "Innocent Country", was a meditation on isolation and pessimism, this belated sequel is an altogether more positive and outward-looking affair. It's a rather ironic twist given the global lockdown we're all enduring, but musically what they've delivered is exactly what we need: a brilliant collection of soul-fired hip-hop cuts rich in beats that variously doff a cap to J Dilla, gospel, jazz, reggae and neo-soul. It's a breezy, summery and life-affirming collection all told, with the assembled cast-list of guest MCs and vocalists reading like a who's who of the US hip-hop underground. It's the album we all need right now.

Review: When he sat down to write and produce "The Fun Ones", his first full-length excursion since 2017, veteran beat-maker RJD2 set himself some rules. Firstly, he would be bound by no genre rules, and secondly, he would only select "fun" tracks for the finished set. The result is an album that's as giddy, vibrant and exciting as they come, with RJD2 fusing scratches and crunchy hip-hop beats with self-made drum breaks, rousing funk instrumentation, psychedelic rock flourishes, choice samples and some fine, analogue-sounding synthesizer motifs, making this one of his most instantly entertaining works to date.

Review: It's been a while since we last heard from Shabazz Palaces, the suitably cosmic, experimental and otherworldly musical collective helmed by former Digable Planets mic man and producer Ishmael Butler. Remarkably, "The Don Of Diamond Dreams" is Butler and company's first album for over three years. The good news is that it's every bit as inspired as its predecessors, with Butler spitting conscious lyrics and singing spaced-out R&B choruses over beats that variously mix and match elements of future soul, spiritual jazz, exotica, glitch-hop, experimental electronica and intergalactic jazz-rock. It's perhaps a little more polished than some of the crew's previous albums, but it retains and expands on their inspiring, hard-to-pigeonhole musical blueprint.

Review: The latest must-check missive in CB Records' "Change The Beat" series, which was inspired by the legendary San Francisco party of the same name, comes courtesy of label regular Mophono and collaborators Tenshun and The Heavy Twelves. The former lends a hand on A-side "Goons", a formidably fuzzy and lo-fi fusion of chaotic, loose-limbed drums, throbbing bass and intergalactic noises. The Heavy Twelves replace Tenshun in the studio on flipside "Spy vs Spy". Operating at a lower tempo with dirtier bass, grime style stabs and dub noises aplenty, it's arguably even stronger than the A-side.