Don’t sleep on this beat tape from Jansport J. It’s the 6th project that he released this year, and it came out on June 14th. Hopefully you remember my post about the previous project he’d released, sayless. He’s gone on to release two more projects, one in July, and the other in August. I think it’s safe to assume he’s gonna be releasing a project every month this year. This one in particular that I’m reviewing today seems to be the last in the series of lowercase titles ending in a period.

heavylight. and sayless. are still my favorite projects that I’ve heard from him this year so far, but this one isn’t far behind those two. I suppose the biggest complaint anyone could have about these projects is that each track can get a bit repetitive. He thankfully doesn’t make any of them really overstay their welcome though. The longest track here is stopngo!, which was a tribute to MF DOOM. I don’t know if “tribute” is the correct word to use. The full title is technically stopngo! [waddup DOOM]. Despite being an outlier in terms of length, it actually ended up being one of my favorite tracks. It’s dope af. My other two favorites are Textures and the title track. They both sound very cheerful to me. I can see myself sitting in the sunlight with a blunt lit while both of those tracks are playing in the background. Not simultaneously. You know what I mean. Anyway, there’s actually not a single track on the tape that I didn’t care for at all. However, I obviously liked some tracks more than others. groovycelebration was the only track that actually made me start dancing, but that’s also the only track that I wasn’t sitting down while listening to, so I guess it had an advantage. To me, some of the weaker tracks like Dubai and doyou. were just a little flat because the repetitive loops got old quickly or the track lasted a little too long. Or both. I feel like it’d be less noticeable if someone was rapping over it, but just a simple loop repeating over and over gets old pretty quickly. Speaking of rappers, I’m not exactly sure why I don’t see more placements from Jansport J. I really only hear his beats on solo projects like this. I guess if he’s securing the bag by releasing these projects exclusively on Bandcamp then he doesn’t really need to be working with rappers, but it’d be cool. One of my favorite Sylvan LaCue songs is over a Jansport J beat. Anyway, I just have a few more comments to make since it’s not like this is that different from the previous project I talked about from him. letmein sounded super familiar when I first heard it. I don’t know if he flipped a sample that I’ve heard before or what, but it was really bugging me. GOOD. kinda reminded me of Joey Bada$$’s Waves, but it’s not that similar. IDK reminded me of Lupe Fiasco’s Pharaoh Height 2/30 mixtape. That’s mainly because this track includes a voice saying “pharaoh” at the beginning though. At least, I think that’s what she said. Maybe I misheard it. Anyway, that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say. Some of these beats kinda reminded me of J Dilla’s Donuts, which I suppose is very high praise. If you’re a fan of traditional lo-fi Hip Hop production you’ll dig this. Nujabes fans will be pleased with Jansport J’s work. Some of these beats also gave me a 9th Wonderish feeling—particularly the title track. So Dilla, 9th Wonder, and Nujabes. In other words, I like Jansport J’s production a lot. Check this shit out. If you don’t, fuck you. Just kidding. Seriously though, don’t sleep on this project. Or any of the projects he’s dropped this year. It’s all good stuff.

Favorite Song: Textures
Least Favorite Song: GOOD.

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