Search - J Rock :: Streetwize 15th Anniversary Edition

"Streetwize" was produced by DJ Premier and Easy Mo Bee (along with J Rock) back in 1991. The beats are nuts! Its crazy rare independent stuff laid down before either of them blew up as producers. The beats are funky as hell with a lot of nice cuts and horns. J Rock the Messiah drops dope lyrics, telling stories about pimpin', hustling and trying to survive in the hood. "Stepping away is ya best move", he brags in the opening track "Let Me Introduce Myself", produced by Easy Mo Bee. The only single off the LP was "Neighborhood Drug Dealer", another tale from the crack side told over a fat bass line with a crazy, hypnotic guitar sample. More dopeness on "Don't Sleep on Me", a great, smooth song with a funky xylophone and a soulful voice sampled in it and, again, nice cuts. The songs are altered with funny satirical skits. J Rock doesn't just brag and boast on this album, he's also critical of society, like on the tracks "Save the Children", an ode to all the abducted and murdered children of the hood, and "Let's Get It Together", an appeal to the black people to stick together and use knowledge (evidently, there's a Martin Luther King sample at the beginning of the track). Back to pimpin' now with "Around My Way" where J Rock celebrates his talents as a womanizer: "J Rock's the man, collecting girls like stamps." More pimpin' in "The Pimp", a DJ Premier production with a fat thumpin' bass line and ill lyricism with nice, funny metaphors, "abracadabra, I pull a rhyme out a hat", and typical Premier cuts. Another Premier production is the very short track "The Real One", a typical Premier cut that reminds us of the beats he did on Gang Starr's first two albums. "I get an encore for kickin funky metaphors", spits J Rock. Unfortunately he didn't get that encore until now. "Streetwize"This time it's for real.