Juice Aleem – Jerusalaam Come
August 4, 2009
It is the year 2009, and hip-hop is having an exceptionally strong year. The latest release from Ninja Tune affiliate Big Dada comes from New Flesh and Gamma frontman Juice Aleem. With Thunderheist‘s ‘Jerk it’ featured in award-winning film The Wrestler and female emcee Speech Debelle up for the Mercury Prize, Big Dada have delivered another British rap album for the record buying public’s delectation. However, the very mention of UK rap is enough to tighten purses, set spines shivering and teeth chattering amongst the global hip-hop community. Why? Because Brithop as it stands now has developed from grime and, as such, has a delivery unlike that of traditional rap. Artists from this pool include: Sway, Lady Sovereign and Kano and though Juice Aleem’s been around for longer than any of them, it seems that the only UK rapper from the ‘old-school’ swimming in the mainstream today is Roots Manuva.
With that in mind, we proceed directly to the ‘First Lesson’ of Jerusalaam Come which features an ascending, grinding bassline and distinct dub reverb on snare hits. “Somebody better be running and telling the brothers that they can’t flow” comes the hook and it’s an energetic beginning but one that belies the album’s full content. That can certainly be discerned the moment N.W.A. inspired ‘Straight Outta B.C.’ kicks in. As the rolling sub-bass rubs up against the electro claps and kickdrums, Juice, Moorish Delta’s Cipher Jewels and Gamma’s Blackitude rep the glamorous ends of Birmingham City with a healthy slice of gangster attitude.
Though it would be simple to bypass the slower, ‘soulful’ tracks such as ‘The Fallen‘ which simply serves as a vehicle for Juice to preach; and the sexless, salacious ‘U4MI’ (surely there’s something in the Qur’an about describing your sexual appetite and methods on record?), they are jarring indicators of Juice’s shortcomings as an emcee. It’s just as well that ‘Who is he‘ slips betwixt the two as the double-time verses give Juice ample opportunity to flex verbosity.
Unfortunately, Juice tries to flex mental on the heavily flawed ‘KunteKinteTarrDiss’ which seems driven by some whacked-out philosophy and insight earned off the back of a discarded matchbox and certainly not from watching (’60s TV show) ‘Roots’: “Now the whitest of the whites trying to act all black, they got African cats all Yardie in the chat…I’m too weighty, bring your blue-eyed Jesus, make me take off the safety [gunshots], blue eyes didn’t exist in 10,000 BC…Negroes and white Sambos, Asian kids acting like they don’t have a culture of their own…I don’t buy champagne cos it’s only fizzy wine…” Though I can guess, I don’t specifically know what it is to ‘act black’; I thought that was something Daily Mail readers said, and for an appropriator of what is primarily an American art-form to claim that there are other people who don’t have their own ‘culture’ to draw from – well, that’s just self-deception. I’d enjoy hearing what the Asian Riz MC would have to say about that.
Ignoring the historical accuracies, Juice takes to the skies on club-friendly ‘Higher Higher’ before he comes a cropper on the Wu-Tang inspired ‘The Killer’s Tears’ where he fails dramatically to deliver visual poetry. Both ‘Church of Rock’ and particularly ‘Blues Block Party’ are easily the most musically daring tracks on this mixed up album of awkward, British sentiment and misplaced, anti-colonial passion.
(2.5/5)
01 First Lesson
02 Straight Outta B.C.
03 The Fallen (Gen 15.13)
04 Who Is He?
05 Rock My Hologram
06 U4MI
07 KunteKinteTarDiss
08 Higher Higher
09 You Shut The ____ Up
10 The Killers Tears
11 Church Of Rock
12 Blues Block Party
13 Sang Real
14 Tings Get Heat Up
Related posts:
- Juice Aleem – Rock My Hologram
- Skuff And Inja – The Skuff And Inja Show
- 3Mix can fuck right off.
- Kill It Kid
- The Red Fox Chasers – Anthology
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