Jonwayne Is Retired

hip-hop/indie rap/neo-backpack-rap/abstract battle rap

Excellent EP of left-field hip-hop from rapper/producer Jonwayne (and company). Great production (composition and engineering). Concise (spare but lush) beats that bump, and keep it weird. Always entertaining flows, no one’s saying anything profound, but they’re saying it so well. # 3 & 4 are absolute murder.

RIYL: MF DOOM, Edan, Count Bass D, Low End Theory, Solesides

FCC Clean! (edited for radio)

1. swimmy fluorescent keys, gets echoey. cavernous rhythm, thick bassline trades off with loping sparse percussion. steady stream of consciousness, vocals fade into the beat at the end. remastered 8-bit video game flourishes. 3:24
2. slow sampled break, studio chatter, then dense keyboard buzz enters. quick battle-ish raps and brief sample interjections swim in the beat. keys make it thick/humid, drums give it structure, falls apart into chatter at the last second. 2:38
3. slow loopy sampled old timey piano, just a bit warbly. cymbals click in, then huge lumbering offbeat drum machine break (w/ tuned kicks!). flow bounces across beat, casual shit talking, sharp but loose. way screwed occasional scratches of whodini’s “friends” (courtesy of d-styles!). tense movie dialogue sample last :15. 3:43
4. loping drum break and barely-there rhythm guitar groove. rewind, then big clean simple bassline comes in. exasperated pitch shifting flows from jonwayne, then beat strips back. anderson paak drops in, ad-libs and then real flows when the beat returns, real smooth but a little ragged, bluesy half-sung rap, all pares back last few bars. 4:52
5. ambient background hum and echoing fuzz tones, glitched tape echoed ad-libs from anderson paak. then drums drop in, jonwayne w/ initially straight-forward flow doubles up and darts around. keys fray, drums drop. beat comes back for a while before beat and vox fray out at the end. 4 melts right into 5, but fine to play separately. 3:43

recommended: 3, 4, 1, any