Music Review // J Ru "XIV XXVIII"

 

https://open.spotify.com/album/0DLAgCaZbx2SHBPhZTimIU?si=WSZOOrXSQFetgTOUdbN4fg&nd=1

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the first time I heard certain albums by rappers.  I remember where I was and who I was with when I first heard Eminem, for example, and it has just always felt so rebellious to me just because so many people were into the big hair rock n roll music and then grunge, listening to 2Pac and Dr Dre became dangerous.   One of the reasons why I still enjoy listening to music which is new to me is because of that feeling of hearing something for the first time and then years later, after hearing it a hundred times, you still remember how you felt that first time.

J Ru is bringing a style of hip hop which is exclusive to him and though there can be influences here and there it mainly all just comes back to his voice, his influence.  There is soulful singing to start "Undiscovered" and songs such as "Scars" have that R&B piano as well.   Singing exists on "The Crown" and "Lost Ties", which makes it feel more like hip hop than rap.  Somewhere between the soundtrack to a Quentin Tarantino film and Darko The Super, J Ru just has his own sound and listening to it can be as much fun as it can be emotional.  

Lyrically, these songs can address a lot of topics and it will likely take you a few listens to discover it all.   "Throwin' Jacks" mentions skateboarding while "The Mornin" is a song about not being a morning person (which I am not).   "Level Granted" is about being busy and not letting it overwhelm you but also about how perhaps we should start leveling up every year instead of celebrating birthdays as we do now.  Saying you're a "Level 50" does sound a lot better than being "50 years young lolz".

One of the biggest parts of creating music in the vein of hip hop is not just the beats and the sounds which go with them, but if you're going to do this you need to have lyrics which make sense and have a flow to them.  J Ru has that and I feel like he's one of those undiscovered (no pun intended) voices and one day he should be known by all throughout the community because this music is just too good to be missed.