J.Rocc: Some Cold Rock Stuf
The sticker on the cover of J.Rocc‘s Some Cold Rock Stuf says “Not a mix tape. Not a DJ-album. Not a beats-album. It’s the album.” While that is a pretty emphatic statement, it is perhaps necessary for the turntablist’s debut solo album. After an illustrious career as the founder of The World Famous Beat Junkies, J.Rocc largely moved away from releasing original music; it has been since Beat Junkies 1999 album, The World Famous Beat Junkies Volume 3 since we have heard originals from the man. Now, J.Rocc releases his long anticipated debut album in the form of a two disc.
The two disc set is comprised of the album itself and a “mystery CD” which contains no track listing. Apparently every copy of the album has the potential to contain one of three different mystery CDs. Because I am only privy to one mystery CD, I will more speak about the album itself.
The album is interesting; it is promoted as a collection of “instrumental hip-hop, dance music, smoke tracks, [and] assorted cold rock stuff.” I would probably refer to the contents of the album as pretty straight downtempo. I listen to a song like “Don’t Sell Your Dream (Tonight).” The track features that scratchy vinyl sound with a treble-heavy hip hop beat over it. It adds some sampled guitars and some haunting ambient female vocals. The track could easily be mistaken for something by Massive Attack.
That is not to say that the entire album is like that. “Party” is more reminiscent of something by Nightmares on Wax. It features a tribal dance beat and some chanting that is interspersed between bouts of funky horns. The track is probably the most fun track on the album but it is the only one of its kind on Some Cold Rock Stuf.
Overall, the album is pretty good. It seems like a nice album to just be able to put on and chill too. It is not as hip-hop-centric as I expected but J.Rocc’s production still shines on it and show a new and more mature J.Rocc.
Rating: 7.3/10
MP3: J.Rocc “Don’t Sell Your Dream (Tonight)”
Buy: iTunes or Amazon
J.Rocc – Chasing The Sun – Music Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFAyvgQjXh0