Jay Eff Kay: America: Suicide Notes Vo. 1

The 411:

NYC Rapper Jay Eff Kay got at me completely out of the blue with his new album “America, Suicide Notes Vo. 1”. As I refused to watch “The White Rapper Show” out of uh…staunch moral principal (and I don’t have cable, natch), I missed his cameo and I’m glad for it, cause Jay did not come off well. His new album, free online here (link) presents a much better picture. If you’re an aimless cubicle drone with rap-fueled fantasies of GTA induced mayhem and boiling rage at the body politic, this is your new soundtrack.

Read it after this jump off:

Lyrics:

(4/5)

I know what you’re thinking: Eminem. This will be the obvious comparison, but remember that Em himself says he just bit Andre from Outkast’s flow (listen to his first album, you’ll see) and you’ll realize that with Em’s decade of influence on rap music there’s bound to be a comparison. Deal with it, no white guy can ever rap again without being compared to or contrasted against Eminem. Just enjoy that fact that unlike Not-so-slim Shady, Jay Eff Kay has only to get better, while Marshall fades into irrelevance. Hi! My name is…who cares!

Jay Eff Kay will punch you in the cunt (ladies) and attack you with a coffee pot. For reals, he is no joke like that.

He addresses this self-consciously “shocking” material on “I’m All over It”, where he calls out fake G-G-G-gangsta’s with lines like:

“Raps gone soft/ like it’s on Zoloft or dosed off/ Shit like Katrina happens and Nobody Goes Off”.

Beyond that well worn cliche though, he touches off on pay for play rappers, “McMansions” , the sadly missing rage of groups like of NWA and most insightfully the suburb-ification of hip-hop with so-so clever lines:

“At the Church Picnic they was paying Golddigger / Mom was dropping N-bombs like pass that jell-o mold Nigga!”.

That line is worth a whole 2 stars by itself, no joke.

On tunes like “Want Sex and Violence? (Suburbia’s It) Jay jumps characters like a demented Mario Bro.: his album’s cast with little kids talking about “Cuttin you, Prison style”, White-trash thugs with parenting problems and yes, even Jesus himself . Sometimes his reliance on character leaves too much distance between the listener and the rapper, blurring those lines again between self-expression and self-parody; There’s solid moments when his true personality shines through and makes his reliance on third person charicature seem needless. Yet other times it works damn near brilliantly to propel the growing insanity of his FOX-News and Botox fed scenarios, as if “Cops” was directed by John Carpenter and scored by El-P.

But for the few mis-steps lyrically, Jay Eff Kay comes across as a truly committed, interesting emcee

His flow is pure old-school bounce, which was suprising for a New Yawk rapper : lots of quick wordplay, long, looping rhymes and enough pitch shifting craziness to freak-out Madlib.

But: Not a lot of braggin, strange again for a NYC MC. Each song is presented as story. More often than not, his unforced “Average White Male” delivery works: it lets his obvious wit come across, but he falters on tunes like “Skankapotamous”, jam-packed of cliched “ho in the club” lines and a too-jokey delivery which left me bored, and the dirging “Paranoid 2007”, which simply drowned in the production, disappointed. Huh? What you say Jay? I can’t hear you!

As is the style of these times, the Bush administration gets it with both barrels, and while the sentiment is obvious, Jay’s satirical edge makes both the war and the “critical response” to the war seem like a joke. The lines between Jay Eff Kay as rapper and as rap “character” blur and add a depth to the disc that one-note rappers lack: is he mocking the war, mocking those who mock the war or mocking us the listener? Imagine, having to analyze what lyrics actually mean, holy shitballs! I never had to do that with my Will Smith CD!

For the few mis-steps lyrically though, Jay Eff Kay comes across as a truly committed, interesting emcee. Like an everyman’s Aesop Rock, minus the librarian’s vocabulary, he connects more often than not, and never seems to go too far up his own ass. He does something rare in underground rap: he makes you want him to get better, to hear more, and to see where he goes, and that to me is worth another 2 stars by itself, so there you go.

Production:

(3.5/5)

Again, you reaaaally want this guy to get better, and it’s the same for his beat selection. For every so-damned-near-classic like the two-part “Day In the Life” and the Bomb-Squad style “I’m all over It” there’s a throw-away beat like “Fuck the World”, which lets down some of Jay’s most insightful song-writing with a Enya style synth and bargain bin drums, and of course: “Skankapotumous”.

For every so-damned-near-classic like the two-part “Day In the Life” and the Bomb-Squad style “I’m all over It” there’s a throw-away beat like “Fuck the World”

The surprisingly fun “Welcome to America” brings back the glory days of the west coast, and Jay’s self proclaimed love of Limp Bizkit and ICP (says Jay:….Fuck You) shows up on the Cocaine fueled “Sniff Row”, with it’s crack-rock-hard hair metal guitars and pounding toms, and again on the far, far less rocking “Say It To My Face”, where the beat descends into a generic Lil’ Jon parody. The beat selection is damn near identical, which would work brilliantly if this was an EP but leaves me wanting a broader range of sounds and tempos for a full length. Again, what works is a grand slam in an inning with too many pop-fly’s.

That Bomb-Squad meets drrrty south influence is felt throughout “America” in the form of the aforementioned characters (pitch shifted and accented all over the damn place) and synth heavy, pounding production. The liberal use of cartoonish sound effects and “Chopped-and-Screwed” hooks both help songs like “Suburbia” and “Day in the life” (with it’s “I’m a Bad Motherfucker” refrain sure to stick in your head), and clutter them. It’ this “Bag O’ Tricks” style approach that ultimately lets the album down production wise in the end. It left me wanting to see Jay find beats with more soul, to let them breath instead of sugar-coating them with distortion and fx, and of course to get some goddamn breaks in there damnit!

The Verdict:

Jay Eff Kay is a clearly talented rapper who’s new album “America: Suicide Notes Vo.1” is ultimately hindered by bland production, some “me-too” song-writing and an often one-note soundtrack. But even saying that, I’ll also say this: cop this album. Like any internet-bred hater, I reaaaally wanted to hate this album, cause thats how I do. But I can’t, and I am the arch-hater. Get this and listen to it.

…some seriously solid songs, wise-ass and witty rapping and some heavyweight beats…

In each song that let me down, I could see where Jay was trying to go: his bad material isn’t actually THAT bad. Not in the “Laffy Taffy / Holy shit! This guy fucking sucks” way, but an artistic mis-step like the work of filmmakers Tarantino or Oliver Stone, or notorious rapcats like EL-P and Prince Paul; Talented, caffeine addled guys who’ll try anything and everything, offend anyone, and see what sticks. Jay has only a pretty short distance to travel before his albums hang together as a whole, and I’d advise haters everywhere to pay attention.

And what sticks with “America: Suicide Notes Vo. 1” are some seriously solid songs, wise-ass and witty rapping and some heavyweight beats from rap’s self proclaimed Travis Bickle . I’m waiting to see what Jay Eff Kay does next, because I have a feeling he could get a whole lot better. Scary better. Now if only we could forget about Skankapotamous.

Weight: (3.5/5) - Promising and often hilarious cat who sometimes stumbles but eventually shines.

GET IT HERE

http://www.johneffkennedy.blogspot.com/

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Critical Beatdown, Who next?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.