To celebrate both the release of J-Live's 'The Early Works of J-Live' and Homecut's 'No Freedom Without Sacrifice' I asked Homecut himself to pick out his top 5 J-Live tracks:
"You can't pick a top five of J-Live really, because he's one of the few emcees who is deep. Not just as a person, but also in terms of back catalogue. He got hype tracks, concept tracks, stories, battle rhymes, love songs (never queezy), anthems and social commentary all locked down. Plus he's not just an amazing emcee, he cuts and produces too. Um... I think I better go back to the lab again. Well, here's 5 of my faves (notably 'Like This Anna' from 'All Of The Above', which is sublime, is missing - your fault Certified Banger for not allowing me 6 tracks!). N.B. If you haven't gathered, he's one of my heroes."
1. 'Braggin' Writes' - J-Live. "One of the original joints that brought J into the consciousness of all underground heads worldwide. The beat that you can't date. Crazy flow. Wherever I listen to it I feel like all of a sudden I'm in a cypher at the back of a grimy New York club. Plus at live shows he does the cuts himself whilst rhyming."
2. 'Them That's Not' - J-Live. "Yep. That's the one with that dope beat that speeds up and J rides it all the way. Ill concept."
3. 'A Charmed Life' - J-Live. "An honest autobiography by the man himself. Beautifully drawn portrait, a wonderful flow and a "How-to" lesson in story telling."
4. 'True School Anthem' - J-Live. "I remember seeing J perform this live with L-Fudge and Mr Complex at Fresh Jive Leeds, back in the day. Big up all the b-boys and b-girls Fresh Jive Leeds! He had us singing "No skool rule like true skool!""
5. 'The Truth' - Handsome Boy Modelling School ft. Roisin Murphy & J-Live. "My last track. Alright, not strictly a J-Live track. But it is, in fact, one of my favourite verses managing to take a song that you don't think can get much better and cold killin' it!"
"You can't pick a top five of J-Live really, because he's one of the few emcees who is deep. Not just as a person, but also in terms of back catalogue. He got hype tracks, concept tracks, stories, battle rhymes, love songs (never queezy), anthems and social commentary all locked down. Plus he's not just an amazing emcee, he cuts and produces too. Um... I think I better go back to the lab again. Well, here's 5 of my faves (notably 'Like This Anna' from 'All Of The Above', which is sublime, is missing - your fault Certified Banger for not allowing me 6 tracks!). N.B. If you haven't gathered, he's one of my heroes."1. 'Braggin' Writes' - J-Live. "One of the original joints that brought J into the consciousness of all underground heads worldwide. The beat that you can't date. Crazy flow. Wherever I listen to it I feel like all of a sudden I'm in a cypher at the back of a grimy New York club. Plus at live shows he does the cuts himself whilst rhyming."
2. 'Them That's Not' - J-Live. "Yep. That's the one with that dope beat that speeds up and J rides it all the way. Ill concept."
3. 'A Charmed Life' - J-Live. "An honest autobiography by the man himself. Beautifully drawn portrait, a wonderful flow and a "How-to" lesson in story telling."
4. 'True School Anthem' - J-Live. "I remember seeing J perform this live with L-Fudge and Mr Complex at Fresh Jive Leeds, back in the day. Big up all the b-boys and b-girls Fresh Jive Leeds! He had us singing "No skool rule like true skool!""
5. 'The Truth' - Handsome Boy Modelling School ft. Roisin Murphy & J-Live. "My last track. Alright, not strictly a J-Live track. But it is, in fact, one of my favourite verses managing to take a song that you don't think can get much better and cold killin' it!"
'The Early Works' of J-Live' is available as a 40 track download now from both itunes and Amazon, it's on J-Live's own Triple Threat Productions. 'No Freedom Without Sacrifice' is out on Monday 25th May on First Word Records.
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1 comment:
When is that "Early Works" joint dropping? I'm definitely needing more J-Live raps in my life.
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