jDot - "Rhythms and Rhymes"
CT based MC Justin "jDot" Collins released his second mixtape "Rhythms and Rhymes" a few weeks ago, and since then has received much respect from hip-hop blogs such as Straight Fresh, Audio Mack, and Indie Hip-Hop. Since I was involved in the creation process, I don't necessarily want to give an album review, I really just want to talk about the effort that went into this tape, and how I was involved.
Watching Justin grow as an artist over the past year has been truly amazing. Our first project together was a mostly instrumental album called Strathmore Sessions. A lot of people don't know that for how talented jDot is as an MC, he's equally as talented as a producer. We worked on a couple beats together, and then did mostly our own thing, which was more comfortable for us. It was the first time in almost a year of being such close friends that Justin even recorded a verse on one of my beats. Regardless, the album did well and we even have a Vol. 2 waiting to be released. Around the same time, Justin had released his first mixtape, On the Daily, which besides one track produced by jDot, was an entirely industry beat mixtape. It was an awesome project. We bumped it regularly, and still today when Justin and I perform we play tracks off it. But even though the tape was so dope, and he was shown a good amount of love on it, I would frequently ask Justin about why he used all industry beats when he A. made such amazing beats himself, and B. was in such a close knit group of friends, numerous of whom were awesome producers themselves! He would always respond with the same answer. "Son, I don't like rapping over my own beats really, and I don't like waiting around for people to send me beats." I guess I understood. It was in a way my own fault since at the time I was stuck with the idea that any beats I made should be sold to artists for quick cash, and Justin didn't want to pay for beats (understandable, a college kid really does have other things more worthy to spend money on.)
So when he told me about his next tape almost a year ago, I was determined to get a beat on it. I worked specifically on this idea for almost 2 weeks, and in those two weeks, Just Continue was created. I originally called the beat Snow Shovel because it was that transitional period between Winter and Spring, where the snow isn't all gone, but the weather is getting warmer so it's all turning to slush. I remember sitting in the living room, hearing shovels scraping against the asphalt while I was making the beat, so without any other inspiration for a name, that was it. I remember being about 75% done with the beat, with only small tweaks left to do. I left the beat playing on loop, and went down the street to get something to drink, and upon returning home walked into the living room to find Justin sitting on the couch, head nodding, typing lyrics out quickly on his cell phone. He looked up and saw me, and the smile that anyone who's spent time with Justin can so vividly imagine, (almost like a kid getting everything he asked for on Christmas at the same time, including the ridiculous things like a fighter jet and a giraffe), and delivered his classic "satisfied with a beat" line..."YOOO SONNY THIS SHIT IS TOUGH!!" I laughed, sat down and listened to what he had so far. About a month later, we had recorded and mixed the track in the studio, and were shooting a video for it in Ashburnham. That's really where my hand in the record ended, but I still observed the finalizing of it through watching engineer Joe Go mix the entire record at his house while I sat behind him drinking beers and playing NBA 2k. The tape itself is vastly more mature than On the Daily. Not only through lyrics, but the flows and beats as well. He does have a few beats from some of his favorite industry producers (Gramatik, Foreign Exchange) but also from some of our close friends and colleagues in the Boston music scene. There are beats not from just me, but Nomadic, pagezmusic, Dirty H, and of course, one of his own.
Simply put, this record is incredible. If you're a hungry lover of 90's hip-hop, jDot's flows, rhymes, and beats all hit the spot perfectly. Please support the come-up of an amazing local MC and download this tape. It's free!!
