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Nothing says experimental/alternative hip-hop record like a big saltine cracker. Then again, nothing says next-gen musical artist like the album Rap Album One by a guy who goes by the name Jonwayne. Everything about this album may sound weird going into it if you have no prior experience with the Californian producer/rapper, but trust and believe, Rap Album One stands as the pivotal project in Jonwayne’s career that may quite possibly allow him to land upon peoples’ year-end lists – for what is for the listener to decide.

What is clear is that Jonwayne is a young talent with a mind so progressively wise that he helps bring contemporary music into the future. The modern-day, post-modern extraordinaire, Jonwayne bounces around this album with production worthy of being compared to the likes of fellow experimentalists Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus. Grinding bass lines fluctuate in conjunction with eerie melodies and sawtooth synths all the while the lyricist drops bar after bar of rhymes that should make rapper’s go back and rewrite what they consider their hot lines.

Just as Jonwayne gets us to feel his vibe by giving us a steady intro track though, he lets everything loose on the menacing, cymbal-heavy “You Can Love Me When I’m Dead.” Deepened vocals add a special bit of darkness to the track as scarily playful notes sing out in a misshapen fashion that sounds curiously orchestrated to sound slightly dissonant. Moving on to the next however, the emcee/beat-maker fixes up a song full of realistic inspiration over a simple beat with a plainly chopped piano sample. It is clear that there is no lineage throughout this record, but that peculiarity is what makes Jonwayne so gripping and so hard to ignore.

His sounds tend to cut deep while his melancholy flow seems to counteract the semi-harshness his production endows. Keeping his cool while his beats explicitly expose the heat, Jonwayne remains steadfast in his effort to spit bars of similar syllables that piece together to form lines of creative assertions. There’s something with rappers and electronica/experimental hip-hop beats that makes them so calm and collected meanwhile the beat stays spazzing. Jonwayne resembles that idea and fully encapsulates himself in this strange atmosphere that’s so different it’s like an illusion that makes you feel you don’t understand, but you want to understand. Thus, you keep your attention trained on it and become enwrapped in the mystery.

Perhaps at times it may seem too strange and you may feel yourself drift. The spacey tunes at times create the exact same atmosphere but in the listener’s head. There’s always some kind of sonic shift however that tends to bring you back in. One way or another, no matter how many times you lose track, you eventually get back on and get reeled back in to the musical obstacle course that is Rap Album One.

Even if he is crashing speakers with “The Come Up, Pt. 1 (feat. Scoop De’Ville)” and “The Come Up, Pt. 2” or spilling intergalactic fluid from the cosmos with “Reflection” and “Sandals,” Jonwayne is making a statement on Rap Album One. He throws away all images of the common hip-hop artist and exchanges it with the idea of a clean slate ready to be colored on with any and all shades. Throw some powerful tracks here and some trippy songs there and you got one album that would normally appear as a major cacophony, but Mr. Jonwayne knows how to bend the board and make it work. But be warned, he does it in the weirdest, oddest, most entrancingly unique way possible.

8.5/10

Tracklisting:

1) After the Calm
2) You Can Love Me When I’m Dead
3) Find Me in the Future
4) The Come Up, Pt. 1 (feat. Scoop De’Ville)
5) The Come Up, Pt. 2
6) Yung Grammar
7) Reflection
8) Zeroh’s Song
9) How To Be a Gemini
10) Black Magic
11) Sandals

***Notable Mentions:

Yancey Boys: Sunset Blvd.
Quelle Chris: Ghost at the Finish Line

Tags : JonwayneStones Throw
Stone

The author Stone

Stone is a hip-hop enthusiast residing in NJ/PA. As an aspiring hip-hop producer, Stone studies communications and shares his passion for music by letting the world in on the wonderful world of hip-hop.