Jake One
White Van Music
BY Dave Morris
October 15, 2008 11:10
Trying to sell beats with a resume full of G-Unit credits is like asking someone on a date while you’ve got a bag of rotting fruit hanging around your neck. White Van Music makes a much better business card for Seattle producer Jake One, whose gritty, soulful joints work equally well for street MCs like M.O.P. (the booming “Gangsta Boy”) and more literate heads like Posdnuos and Slug (“Oh Really”). The usual reasons to avoid DJ/producer-led albums don’t apply here — the dullest rappers here never sink below a certain standard (Fiddy sound-alike Bishop Lamont sets the baseline), and the best are on fire. Prodigy, MF Doom and Freeway sound raw and determined, but the real shocker is gruff-voiced Keak Da Sneak’s “Soil Raps” — if those other MCs are grimy, Sneak has flies chasing him like Pigpen from Peanuts.
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