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Image via Javon Johnson
5 On It is a feature that looks at five of the best under-the-radar rap findings from the past two weeks, highlighting new or recently discovered artists, or interesting obscurities.
Premiere: Javon Johnson – The Abyss EP
I’ve been just sitting in the dark other than taking my dog out. She couldn’t take her so I have a pet now. Just trying to keep the pieces.
Javon Johnson’s fiancée left him in late August.
The deputy came to do a welfare check because of my bridge incident the other night. There are traffic cameras for the news stations on the bridge next to the motel I’m living in. That’s how they spotted me.
Javon spoke often to me of past battles with suicidal thoughts—of the homeless days contemplating killing himself, of the day he nearly took his life before his fiancée told him his music had been written up in 5 On It. He’d share buried history, but never wounds festering fresh. I did my best to lend an ear, to provide what little advice I could to a man whose plight took root far from my own experience. All I could comfortably do: suggest that he fuel new music with his pain. Find catharsis in his creative outlet.
Dude…you’re really gonna fucking flip out when you hear this shit I just finished. It’s vulgar…it’s weird…it’s frightening…it’s disturbing. I can honestly say a demon is being released.
Javon channeled despondence and rage into The Abyss, a blunt five song transmission from within a mental crisis. It’s most effective moments are its most brutal and visceral, EP opener “Fin” and closer “Killer Lemonade.” Throughout The Abyss, Javon exhibits the same dense, tightly coiled rapping as on past projects, but “Fin” and “Killer Lemonade” hit hardest because they’re a bit looser, trading technical measure for raw emotion, more automatic than cooly calculated.
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Image via Jayaire Woods
Jayaire Woods – trees42morrow
Chicago’s Jayaire Woods could be comfortably lumped into the ongoing conversation about whether what Fetty Wap does constitutes singing or rapping (of course, that raises a question about why we feel the need to define it as either and can’t simply let it be its own melodic, rap-influenced warble).
Woods certainly raps, but he infuses every line with his distinctive melodic sense, simultaneously lilting and gruff—an unusual combination. His voice carries the debris of experience, unique tone giving weight to “prototype,” “2DAY,” and previously released single “toolong,” the standouts from his debut mixtape trees42morrow. The entire project deserves a listen, though. A strong first look from yet another promising Windy City artist.
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Image via Willy Blanco
RELLIM ft. Willy Blanco – “Sleazin”
Look, I could waste a bunch of words explaining to you why I love RELLIM and Willy Blanco’s “Sleazin,” but I think my analysis is best summed up in the subject of an email I sent to a close friend in the midst of hearing the song for the first time:
“tell me this shit is not a hit”
I didn’t even bother to frame it as a question (and now I’m sure some smart commenter will be the one to tell me that, indeed, this shit is not a hit)—I felt so certain in the moment.
I still feel confident: “Sleazin” sounds a big feature or two away from being an underground hit, hypnotic beat and instantly memorable chorus only in need of a Future and Young Thug tag team effort to complete the picture.
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Image via Free Ackrite
Free Ackrite
We haven’t reached the critical mass to say that Los Angeles is undergoing a hip-hop renaissance, but the last half-decade—particularly the last two years—has comprised the most exciting time in the city’s recent history, both for up-and-comers and established acts. While L.A. still lacks the infrastructure and, in particular, radio muscle that Atlanta (rap’s reigning mecca) has for breaking acts, it’s uniquely positioned to nurture new talent (diverse, varied culture, decent livability, room for home studios, a culture of collaboration).
Inglewood rapper and Cozz-affiliate Free Ackrite showcases charisma and versatility on his self-titled debut project—reflective autobiography on “St. Valentine,” party-ready posturing reminiscent of YG’s recent hits on “Jiggin,” pointed observation and violent reality on “How I Do It” and standout closer “Never Seen Before (Outro).” While it still feels at times like Ackrite wants for a clearly defined voices, his energy carries much of the mixtape. One to watch from the west coast.
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Image via milo
Q the Sun ft. milo – “on the way to something else”
Milwaukee-based producer Q the Sun and rapper milo’s “on the way to something else” brings me back to my earliest days as an internet wanderer devouring as much of the history of hip-hop as I could possibly read about, download, or buy. Shortly after entering the world of Rawkus, I was introduced to its loose west coast cousins Quannum Projects—home of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, and Latyrx, among others,—and wildly experimental Project Blowed—the sprawling agglomeration of talents that included Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude, Busdriver, Ellay Khule, Open Mike Eagle, Nocando, and a sprawling, fluid list of Los Angeles rap tinkerers.
Q’s message about the song feels like it could be ripped from the charter of some Dogma 95-lite experimental rap collective:
“got together with the homie milo and made this on a sunny afternoon. the man wrote it in 30 mins and recorded all the vocals in one take, just saying…
trying to keep this creativity and process pure, i think we succeeded with this one, hope you enjoy
interpret the ‘meaning’ as you will”
Q and milo’s beautiful, warm collaboration recalls Project Blowed’s predilection for jazzy backdrops and clever, tongue-twisting raps. milo, in particular, steals the show, at times sounding one with Q’s beat, others smartly playing off it. His measured, spoken word-inspired rapping won’t be for everyone, but it’s as agile an application of a little used style as you’ll likely hear in 2015.
