Allow me a moment to restate the painfully obvious: to most of the big record labels, making records equals selling records. There are few moral or artistic victories in the record industry-- just dreams of platinum hardware and signing the next J-Lo. Or would that be J-Lo's hardware and the next platinum record? Hmm...
Back to business, though, and our case study: J-Live, a formidable MC and producer, and one of brightest talents in hip-hop's underground today. After drawing the attention of the suits in the mid-90s with fierce underground singles like "Braggin' Writes" and "Hush the Crowd," J-Live inked a record deal and began to cut his first LP. But owing to myriad artistic and contract squabbles, J won himself a taste of the big shaft. Not a single official copy of the LP saw the light of day until late 2001, nearly five years after the process began. I blame the record labels, defilers of vinyl, bandwidth, and all other things aurally sacred. The Best Part would certainly be close to the top of any hip-hop top ten list in any year, even a strong one like 2001.
That's over now, though, and J-Live has come to a peace about his former predicament ("I've dealt with being dealt dirty, downsized and duped/Done double-paid my dues, for real"). Given the delay, though, you can't blame the guy for making up for lost time. A meager six months after finally dropping The Best Part, J-Live has blessed us again with his sophomore LP, All of the Above, though on the ever-so-underground Coup D'Etat label.
And no surprise-- this shit is tight. J-Live describes his lyrical style as "true school." Now, I'm a lily white white-boy, and I'll admit I have no idea that means. Whatever he was getting at, though, it's clear that this former English teacher (J-Live taught seventh grade in Brooklyn) has a serious Native Tongues influence. His delivery is similar to Posdnuos, and his lyrical content is along the same lines: intelligent, educated, confident, and socially conscious. And, like De La, J can bring it. His lyrics are clever, and he does shit with meter and rhyming patterns that is simply mind-blowing.
In terms of beats, J-Live's knows when to pass the mic, or rather, pass the console. One of his best moves was to enlist the assistance of virtuoso producer DJ Spinna. Spinna dishes dimes on a third of the album's 21 tracks, including two of the strongest, "Satisfied?" and "All of the Above." "Satisfied?," the first single off the disc, uses reggae-flavored bass and keys in the verses, then adds lo-fi accordion in the chorus, in addition to what sounds like a boys choir. Upon closer inspection (and a peek at the liner notes) it's actually grown men (J-Live et al) singing "are you satisfied?" in falsetto-- a neat trick.
"All of the Above" is easily the best track, musically, on the album. The beat has a chilled-out, transcendent quality to it, spinning a low-key jazz funk in the bass along with ethereal keys (courtesy of Ticklah) and shifty scratches in the instrumental chorus (courtesy of DP One). The rhyme is a fucking masterpiece, delivered via double-tracked vocals-- one more or less the "melody" track, with a "harmony" track lurking underneath. Sound rich? It is.
As if five years of trying to get his debut out weren't proof enough, All of the Above makes it clear that J-Live is no flash in the pan. Rather, it gives you the feeling that J is just at the dawn of a fairly epic career. Good things come to those who wait-- and hopefully, somewhere, a record exec is kicking himself over this one.
