L’Orange And Jeremiah Jae (Noah)

I used to be all about rap. I went through an unfortunate period where I thought ska and power-punk were just swell, and in the aftermath, three chord progressions still churning in my mind, I went the other direction. I found hip-hop. And for years I shunned all other forms of music that didn’t have a thudding beat and some sick flows hovering above them. There are still huge gaps in my musical knowledge because of these errant years where nothing else was let through the gates but rap, rap and more rap. Now, I’m 33, and after a ten year break from beats, I’m starting to find my way again. And in recent weeks the duo that’s been slicing through the jungle is L’Orange and Jeremiah Jae. I don’t know how young these kids are, or what their musical background is, but whatever they might be, these two bleed true blue hip-hop. They know it too and the songs, gritty and raw with an unmistakable hint of boom-bap bounce riding hard atop it all, drip with tweaked allusions to lyrics and sounds of the music that came before. Beyond all that though, this is just good, solid hip-hop with a strong, but not overwhelming, showing of cameos that under the control of L’Orange on the ones and twos lend just that little bit extra to every song. Sure, the end of the album is murky (in an almost classic sense) and not every song explodes off of it, but when they do (the Gift of Gab collaboration All I Need comes to mind), they really do. This isn’t sound aping, this is a whole new thing, one you should probably listen to right now.

:L’Orange And Jeremiah Jae – Taken By The Night: