Jay Eff Kay - America: Suicide Notes Vol. 1: Album Review
Jay Eff Kay, America: Suicide Notes Vol. 1 (2007)
Supposedly, this guy Jay Eff Kay was a big time Wall Street lawyer, but then he quit to become a rapper. My guess is that he may have some personal problems, and he's using his rap career, such as it is, as an excuse. But that's just my arm chair analysis based on a cursory perusal of his MySpace profile.
PROLOGOS/APOCALIPSIS
A dramatic spoken word intro that combines smart political and economic commentary with hilariously insensitive comments about celebrities.
WELCOME TO AMERICA
A song about why America is the best country evar. Sounds just like one of those singles from the first few Eminem albums. Like "The Real Slim Shady."
WANT SEX & VIOLENCE (SUBURBIA'S IT?)
Maybe as funny as "Welcome to America." It's too bad the beat is rather uneventful.
PARANOID 2007
Better. The production at least does a good job of evoking a sense of paranoia. There's a somewhat clever reference to Metallica as well as an insensitive bit about that guy from the Yankees who flew his plane into a building, which I of course could appreciate.
DEN OF RATS
Should be required listening in politically-oriented hip-hop circles, if only because it's all true. At one point he rhymes hegemony and enemy. When it tries to rock out, you wish there was an actual guitar.
THE GIFT & THE CURSE
Some of Jay Eff Kay's more inspired rappin', perhaps because the lyrics themselves are as complex as those first few tracks.
I'M ALL OVER IT
The sound quality's shit, but this one kinda knocks, not unlike something Dre would've done circa 2001.
LAWYER'S LIBRETTO
Some sort of wacky opera. I guess I'll give him an E for attempting something creative, but this is not the kind of thing I could see myself listening to more than once or twice.
FUCK THE WORLD
What should be the album's conceptual and (um) emotional centerpiece is semi-ruined by some murky-sounding R&B keyboards.
SKANKAPOTAMUS
I just had to get up to take care of something, but this didn't sound very good at all.
SNIFF ROW
Goes for a rock-ish sound, but mostly just sounds like a mess. Again, you wish there was an actual guitar. What's Sniff Row, a strip club where people do coke?
DAY IN THE LIFE [A]
Got up again. Sorry.
SAY IT TO MY FACE
Is this supposed to be his take on crunk? Ooh, there's a Virginia Tech reference.
DAY IN THE LIFE [B]
I'm assuming this is part b of that other track which I skipped. Doesn't sound like I missed too much.
COMMENTS: Jay Eff Kay's definitely got potential. He sounds quite a bit like Eminem, but when's the last time Eminem did anything that was worth a shit anyway? The political stuff here is really smart, but at the same time kinda forced. As much as I enjoy music that's angry and political, I found myself enjoying the tracks that were just kinda ignorant more. Unfortunately, hardly any of the production here is very good at all.
BEST TRACKS: "Welcome to America" "Den of Rats" "I'm All over It"
