[rayword45]

Day 3: June 30 - Metaphorical Music by Nujabes (Requested by Phillip Sossou)

Nujabes was a Japanese hip-hop producer who died in 2010 in a car crash. Despite being very critically acclaimed his works weren't reissued after his death meaning his works still cost over $50 on Amazon. Also, Phillip (the guy who requested this, if you haven't read the title) always wants to smack me whenever he brings this guy up because I mispronounce his name.

I expected jazz with hip-hop, and I got exac- BY GOD THESE SONGS ARE IN ENGLISH. Even after multiple warnings, I expected some guy to be rapping in Japanese. I mean come on, my guesses weren't completely baseless, the dude lived in Japan. Thank god I was wrong.

By the time I reach track 5, there seems to be a 1-2 formula for the track listing. Smooth jazz with hip-hop drums, and then smooth jazz with hip-hop drums and some guy rapping. By track 7, he broke the chain (2 instrumentals!). Track 8, Think Different, may be the most hilariously pussyfied diss track I've ever heard. After that, there seems to be more of an emphasis on instrumentals, with some occasional spoken word or samples. The last track, Peaceland, is a particularly soothing smooth jazz piece with some glitch influence.

This album has some pretty awesome instrumentals to it, but a few tracks feel a bit too stretched out. Overall though, it's a nice mixture of rap and easy listening. I'm not a big hip-hop person but I can recommend it for the instrumental tracks alone. My main conclusion? I need new headphones because these are starting to break. Also, Nujabes was a great producer with some really good jazzy beats and a career cut short, though my favorite producer of this genre is still Danger Mouse. That gives me an idea for July 7. I think I'll do a double that day.