WAIT, YOU CAN RAP?!?!
Posted by andyleclair | Filed under Music
It’s said that the best things in life are free. My fellow Northeastern brother proves that proverb to be right on the money. Jelani has just released his first full album, a free download, on his website. What does your $0.00 get you? A damn fine rap album, that’s what. Damn fine.
I’m not going to go into Jelani’s backstory of how he came up in Harlem, or about his dad, Dapper Dan, I’ll leave that to him. I wanna focus on what’s important here - a fucking fantastic rap record. Wait, You Can Rap?!?! is dripping with sincerity, and what I mean by sincerity is that you can tell that this record is really the culmination of a life’s effort devoted to making something wonderful. He says it better than I can, so instead of trying to paraphrase and losing the meaning, just take a look at the first lyrics of this record:
There’s nothing anyone can say or do to me to stop the music, the product that I’m gonna put out, and at the end of the day, the talent will overcome anything. To have the right to talk about what I want, to have the right to give my opinion, because I back everything up. You all thought I was talking !$#? when I first came out? Now y’all see I back everything up. Back to back to back to back to back. So, basically, shut the #$&! up. Stop talking to me. And I’m not coming on some ‘Do you want me to do music? Do you want me to not do music? ‘ I want to do music, because I know people need my music.
Speaking of music, let’s talk about that. This album has some decidedly tight beats, from the simple piano and drums of “The Proposal” to the sample of “Stand on the Word” by Celestial Choir playing in the background of “Pain.” I particularly like the “Stand on the Word” sample. Listen to what the song is about, and tell me that a chorus of “That’s how the good Lord works” isn’t perfect.
Now, I’ve got to be honest, Jelani’s style isn’t my usual thing. I’m more of an Aesop Rock/MF DOOM kind of hip-hop guy, but I’ll make an exception for this album. I’ve already recommended it to all of my friends, and really, it’s a great album, and it’s free! Go download it now! If you dig it, leave Jelani some love on his MySpace, and tell him Andy sent you.
Tags: Jelani, Northeastern, Rap, Wait You Can Rap?!?!
2 Responses to “WAIT, YOU CAN RAP?!?!”
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K8 Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 1:35 pmInteresting, but not at all the sort of thing I listen too. Poetic though, if you break it down for lyrics alone.
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K8 Says:
July 11th, 2008 at 3:37 amPOST MOAR
