De Rap Winkel (2019, Reissue)
Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.
Streetwize originally came out in 1991 on a label called Ghetto Groovz. Ghetto Groovz seems to have mostly only released this album and a few 12" by by J Rock. I'm guessing it was pretty much an under the radar indie at the time. As such, I had never heard of it in 1991, though I did see at least one ad for it in The Source as I've been rereading old issues of that. J Rock is another one of those artists I found out about digging around online looking for albums that I had missed the first time around. This is definitely one of those.
I actually picked this up a few years ago, but it ended up getting overlooked in my 'to write about' pile for way too long. I've listened to it plenty of times, but when it came to deciding what record to write about on Wednesdays, I kept going for something a little shinier or more exciting. Which is kind of how I feel about this record. It's quite good really, but I do find myself more interested in listening to other things when push comes to shove.
As mentioned earlier, this album did come out in 1991 and at times, does sound a little dated, which isn't uncommon for 1991 records. For whatever reason, 1991 was one of those super transitional years for hip hop production and it has left some albums feeling like they are part of the 'before' time and others being very clearly golden era classics. Streetwize couldn't be straddling that line any more. Several tracks were produced by DJ Premier, with the remainder handled by J Rock himself. About half of them still sound really good. Super solid beats for 1991. The other half are on the simpler side and have more in common with the production of the late 1980s. But all in all, it's still a fun listen. I just find that I need to be in the right kind of mood to put this on, just like with other earlier hip hop albums.
J Rock on the microphone is really solid for a 1991 MC. He's not lighting the world on fire with anything super dynamic or innovative, but he's also not kicking basic nursery school rhymes either. Much like the beats, he's right on that line as far as taking the next steps into the golden era. I like every song on this album, and there's a few that really hit that sweet spot. Sometimes being a really good record in a sea of classics is a tough place to be. J Rock probably doesn't get the respect he's due, but I guess I'm a little guilty of not giving him enough as well. It is still definitely a record worth going out of your way to check out if you've never heard it before.
J Rock - Streetwize:
https://youtu.be/Tjkam7Ybt-Q?si=fhklMIBfKvOauKkw
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