J-Live - Hear After
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Music CD Cover
Artist: J-LiveEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Music Label: Penalty
Soundtracks:
- Here
- Aaw Yeah
- Fire Water
- Do My Thing
- Whoever
- The Sidewalks
- Audio Visual
- Brooklyn Public Part 1
- Listening
- Harder
- Coming Home
- Weather The Storm
- After
Free Music Notes for Hear After
Free Music Review: Teaching advanced Honors English on wax
Hit: 5 Stars
Before I start off, I would like to mention that I wasn't all that big a fan of J-Live prior to "The Hear After." And yes, I do have "All of the Above." While there were some killer tracks on "AOTA," on the whole the album was a little bland and hard to listen to even twice in a row (I'll expound on this in a minute). Anyways, I didn't hesitate when this came out, because I was interested in seeing if he was at the end of his career or not...
The only lousy song was "Do My Thing," which had a subpar beat and tried too hard to be 'club-ish.' There are a couple other songs ("I'm Coming Home" and "After") that aren't so interesting, but good enough, and everything else ranges from on-point to phenomenal. For real, the first song goes for the jugular with live instruments and J spittin' nonstop for over 3 minutes straight. Quite the leadoff! J can be found throughout putting more personality and messages in the rhymes than I thought he was capable of. While digital and synthesized sounds are tolerable in small doses, he takes a risk and does back-to-back songs ("The Sidewalks," "Audio Visual") with those in it. Although a tad annoying at first, he pulls it off because those two tracks happen to be among his strongest moments lyrically on the album. "Harder" is an outstanding jam, with numerous live instruments, and I wonder if J's ever gotten down like that on a track before. "Fire Water" has a hard, yet laid-back beat with a guitar in the foreground, "Whoever" kinda has a Spanish feel to it, and the beats of "Brooklyn Public Pt. 1" and "Listening" add to the diversity of the album. "Weather the Storm" almost sounds like it has a bagpipe, while J delivers some heavy-handed political and socio-political raps.
The top five songs are: "Here," "Sidewalks," "Audio Visual," "Harder," and "Weather the Storm." And that list seems to discredit such great songs as "Fire Water," "Brooklyn Public," "Whoever," and "Aaw Yeah."
The thing that was appealing about "All of the Above" were the numerous concepts that J incorporated in many of the tracks. The concepts were admirable ("All In Together Now," "Stir of Echoes," "One For the Griot"), and definitely great on paper, but the execution on some of them just wasn't that interesting. That whole album just seemed to lack personality and any separation from other undergrounders. This album, however, seemed to have plenty of personality, as I started to understand him more with tracks like "Sidewalks" and "Brooklyn Public."
He doesn't really try for any lofty concepts this time around, although he does seem to find a term for letters "A" through "L" within 10 seconds on "Whoever." The vocabulary and metaphors were aplenty as it is on this album (check the well-executed metaphor of "Fire Water"). I love that line: "Throw it on the rocks it'll still burn, go ahead and throw it on your wounds, it'll kill germs." The quotables are incalcuble on "The Hear After." The production is sometimes excellent, but for the most part solid and commendale throughout (bar "Do My Thing"). The "Hear After" is much more cohesive than the bloated "AOTA," and like I said, this one has plenty of diversity. This former Brooklyn teacher proved how serious he is with this Hip Hop thing, and delivers an album that is easily one of the finest of the year. So if you already spent your money on Kanye West, turn right around and pick up this piece of gold from the store. My only problem now is...finding out where I can get "The Best Part." Peace yawl, peace yawl, pe-da-de-da pe-da-de-da peace yawl!
Hear After Poster
One of rap's finest emcees, J-Live has been exemplifying greatness since his start when he was featured in The Source magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column in the mid ?90s. Now firmly established and respected in the underground community, and having worked with luminaries Handsome Boy Modeling School, Jazzy Jeff, Prince Paul, DJ Premier and Pete Rock, J-Live is set to release his finest recording to date, The Hear After.Pop Music CDs
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