Don’t sleep on this latest album from Breeze Brewin. It was released on January 22nd this year. Breeze Brewin is an MC from the legendary underground Hip Hop group, the Juggaknots. I think their classic self titled album from 1996 is pretty great, so it was nice to finally get a solo album from Breeze Brewin. I first became familiar with him through his features on projects like Funcrusher Plus & None Shall Pass. I didn’t end up hearing his work the the Juggaknots until years after I first heard him on features. I wasn’t really crazy about the album they released in 2006, but it wasn’t bad. I just found it to be a little stale. The rhymes were on point. It’s just the production and songwriting that kinda left me wanting more. I was hoping that this project would be more entertaining for me personally. I would’ve been shocked if I didn’t like it, but I tried not to set myself up for disappointment. Obviously since I’m writing a Don’t Sleep review for it, I ended up enjoying it.

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The album starts off with Gotta Love It. It isn’t too different from what was on the Juggaknots’ 2006 album in my opinion. The rhymes are on point, but sonically the track kinda leaves something to be desired. The beat from Sebb Bash is solid, but it feels like it lacks urgency to me. As I just said, the rhymes are on point. I’m very satisfied with Breeze Brewin’s performance here, even if his delivery feels tame.

Like I gotta choice with my style and voice
How that’s lookin’, that’s type-stupid to not exploit

The hook honestly didn’t really add much to the song for me, but the actual rapping from Breeze Brewin here is so good that I still really enjoyed the song overall. I think it’s a dope track. It’s followed by The Uninvited. The production from Black Milk on this one definitely stands out more. It’s far more bombastic and attention-grabbing. I think it’s a dope beat. Breeze’s delivery is still pretty monotone, but his flow is nice here, and the record scratches between each verse were a nice touch. I find this track more enjoyable than the opening song from a musical standpoint, but I still wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily a highlight for me. It is a very dope song though. The first actual highlight for me is Road Rage. I think Sebb Bash’s production here is really damn cool. The way he incorporated the sound of car horns is dope, and I love how hard hitting the percussion here is. The beat almost sounds like something that El-P might make. Breeze Brewin’s rhymes are of course great here. As the title indicates, he’s just rapping about having road rage.

Seein’ red, drivers stay givin’ the right of way
Why still you gotta say “right away
Ándale ándale, stupid, come on, today!”
Like Kan’ to the Ye, the lights flash
Midnight spazzin’ up in your head
Runnin’ the red, and it just turned red
Straight Fishburne headache
Thinkin’ ‘bout Montana, clickin’, it’s on camera
Only difference is they smile when it gets candid
“Hold this ticket,” you’d say “nah,” but you’re red handed

Personally, I can’t say I’ve ever really experienced road rage, or that I actually understand it. I never really understood what it is about driving that makes people so angry. I do get annoyed when I’m a passenger in a car and the driver has road rage though because it’s just like… Calm down. Screaming your brains out at your windshield doesn’t solve anything. It’s never that serious. 99% of the time you’re still gonna get to where you’re trying to go. Anyway, I really like the song. It kinda reminds me of Peeves by Illingsworth.

Been locked in a lane with
Impossible anguish
It’s blocks of the same shit
Gridlocked in the matrix
Anger in our voice, the pounding up in our head’s real
If we had a choice, I doubt we wouldn’t have red pilled

The song is dope as hell to me. The next track I wanna talk about is called PPT, which has another one of the better beats from Kev Fevr. The acronym in the title stands for Pessimistic Personal Trainer. Once again, Breeze Brewin was rhyming very well here.

They talk about the crowd you ain't movin' and how you ain't true
And everything that you ain't doin' other than ain't losin'

As you can see, the content here is pretty interesting. One thing that I appreciate about this album is that most of the songs focus in on a pretty unique subject. Anyway, the next highlight for me is called Taking Notes. This is one of the best songs on the album in my opinion. Parallel Thought provided what is probably my favorite beat on the whole record. It sounds a lot more melodic and sentimental than any of the other instrumentals on the album. I think it’s pretty beautiful to be honest. The content is really cool to me too.

Feelin' stuck and fed up with "good morning, my class"
Really thinkin' "good morning my ass, little knuckleheads"
The students are rude though
Students is dudes in a goal between part enemies and part mini-me's

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone rap about teaching a middle school class. Well, Mega Ran did have three Language Arts projects, which were all pretty good. It’s not a common subject in Hip Hop though, and I think it’s pretty interesting. Breeze Brewin definitely has a different attitude towards the subject too.

Some little kids be stayin' greedy with Cheetos, Doritos
Chips of all kinds with the pork rinds
Bottled water or a soda, kids thinkin' it's all fine
Like they eat at parties, diet far from complete
If you are what you eat, he wanna feed them Smarties
All the junk food, you are what you eat adage can't come true

There really aren’t any aspects of the song that I don’t like. I think it’s dope af. Track 8 is called Translate It. This one has some really hard hitting percussion from B-Money. I think it has one of Breeze Brewin’s best performances on the album from a technical perspective.

Come come with the stories of cum dumpin'
The glory of gun pumpin'
You're boring like humdrum
And you're thinkin' it's dumb, dumb
And you're stinkin' like pumpum
And get done fuckin' around and you're gettin' done in

I definitely misquoted some of those lines, but still. You can see how nice the rhyme pattern and flow is just from that excerpt. The song is really dope. The last one I wanna talk about is the closing track, Devil’s Advocate.

As you can see from the artwork and music video, the song is inspired by the 45th president of the United States. This track really highlighted to me just how American Donald Trump is. He represents everything wrong with this country.

What up with that bomb that he dropped?
Haiti, African shitholes
Had y'all pretty shocked
That crazy bastard, that schizo
Thinkin' this guy's dumb
Why even deny, come on
That shit shouldn't surprise none
In fact, that shit's old

The beat from Breeze Brewin samples Hail to the Chief, which I’m not really crazy about. It just sounds kinda goofy to me, but I guess it fits the theme of the song well. I mostly like the song for the actual rapping, but the beat isn’t terrible or anything. Overall, I think it’s a pretty dope track.

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^{This album is very good. It definitely sounds like a better, more focused version of what we got from the Juggaknots’ 2006 album. I don’t think it’s a flawless, amazing, mind-blowing record. I think the production kinda leaves something to be desired aside from a handful of exceptions. The main appeal is definitely Breeze Brewin’s actual rapping. His rhymes are on point. His flows aren’t too flashy, but the rhyme patterns and unique subject matter are what kept me hooked. It’s also just nice to finally have a solo album from Breeze Brewin. It’s been over a decade since the last Juggaknots album, so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for another project. For now, I’m satisfied with this record. Check it out and let me know what you think. It’s dope in my opinion.}

Favorite Song: TakinG Notes
Least Favorite Song: Eye Poppa

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