'Pivot Widdit' - Eslam Jawaad (single review)

One of the few club banger type dance inducing Hip Hop tracks I can actually get with is the new single from Eslam Jawaad – somehow he just does it a bit more credibly than most. Maybe it would have been more suitable about 4 years ago with its eastern strings but hopefully, it’ll steer folk away from all this modern R’n’B nonsense. The video also adds a tongue in cheek element to the whole track.

On the flip is the smooth Focus produced ‘Criminuhl’, an exploration of how someone of Arabian descent is made to feel in the anti-Middle Eastern West. Eslam flows bilingually on this pertinent track.

Pivot Widdit is out on Eslamaphobic and is available on March 23rd.

'Rewind DJ' ft. De La Soul - Eslam Jawaad (single review)

Defying the usual country-based pigeon holing Eslaam Jawaad represents the UK, US and Lebanon. With past work with Wu affiliate Cilvaringz, UK Apache, Asian Dub Foundation and Damon Albarn’s latest band The Good, The Bad, and the Queen Mr. Jawaad has been busy. And the less we mention about mafia connections the better.

His new single ‘Rewind DJ’, whilst sounding a little clichéd is classic stuff. Firstly, it features De La Soul who deliver the goods with some thoughtful and sometimes scatterbrained vocals. The chorus is robbed (almost) straight from Aliyah’s ‘Try Again’ and outlines Eslam’s intentions of reviving Hip Hop or at least not letting it die again. The production is bouncy and full of replayability and has some welcome scratching incorporated.

The B-side ‘Hip-Hop Sucks’ laments (as many have done) that Hip Hop has “no message, no essence, no soul”. It’s a good track so many MCs have touched this subject that it’s kinda tedious although the brassy lively production gives it a real lift.

‘Rewind DJ’ is out on 26th January 2009 on Eslamaphobic. Eslam Jawaad’s album ‘The Mammoth Tusk’ which features The Rza, Damon Albarn and Dre-associate Focus will be out in the spring. 'Rewind DJ' can be heard on his myspace page.