A week after releasing intense single “?,” Houston’s Javon Johnson returns with new EP All The Gear, No Idea. The product of Johnson getting his hands on equipment of his own, ATGNI clocks in at just over 10 minutes, a brief transmission from a brain overflowing.
“I honestly had a lot on my mind and now that I have the equipment to create at any given moment,” Johnson told me. “I’m searching for ideas instead placing them because I’ve learned that it’s not about what you say, it’s all about how you say it. What you can show the people is more important than what they hear. As James Baldwin said: ‘The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.’”
The vividness of Johnson’s observations give weight and texture to his fluid stream of consciousness. All-too-brief EP standout “Adam” provides a striking example of how Johnson has grown as a rapper in the short time since he first popped up on our radar.
“‘Adam’ had been on my heart for about a year, I just never wrote it down,” he said of the song. “Too painful. Long story short, “Adam” was my friend Joel that never listened to me during our growing days. He had his mind made up that he wanted to be the ‘man’ and was gunned down. I actually knew his killer by chance. I sort’ve warned him every time I saw him or talked to him, but he never listened. I felt like if I had a way to redo it, I would’ve been there. He would still be alive now.”
“I believe Chuck D said the hip hop is the CNN of the hood. In many ways, I agree that it should be.”
Stream ATGNI below.
