Juice Aleem, long-acknowledged as one of the finest MCs the UK has ever produced, finally goes solo. The sometime New Flesh and Gamma frontman who has also worked with Coldcut, Hextstatic, Evil 9 and Adam Freedland amongst many, many others, has decided that at last it’s time to go for self.
“Jerusalaam Come” is the result – thirteen tracks of varied beats and broad musical influences held together by Juice’s unique lyrical style and mental dexterity. Largely produced by Gamma/Shadowless legend Blackitude, it’s an album which is both as raw and as sophisticated as the minds who have made it.
First single “First Lesson” kicks things off, Juice showing rather than telling, when it comes to the failings of many of the MCs on the scene. “Straight Out Of BC” is an electro-dub tribute to the second city featuring Moorish Delta’s Cipher Jewels. “The Fallen (Gen. 15.13) continues the dub and roots feeling with a complex lyric drawing links between Biblical proverbs and “The Fallen” of our own society. “Who Is He?” – produced by Tomz and featuring him and Blackitude – is a Gamma get-together, the lyrics skipping over the beat with complete control. “Rock My Hologram,” produced by Si Begg, is a dubstep-flavoured number . On “U4Mi” Juice addresses sex and relationships, using a sly humour which is sometimes overlooked in discussions of an MC who can deliver lyrics any way he likes. “KunteKinTeTarDiss” is an attack on rap music and contemporary society more generally. “Higher Higher” is a straight lyrics/battle tune, complete with tribal yells and a bell at the end of each !
round. “You Shut The ____ Up” is a blistering put down to a younger generation of rhymers who make up what they lack in skill with pure front. “The Killer’s Tears” is a Wu-esque story-rhyme drawing on Juice’s love of martial arts. “Church of Rock” finds Juice testifying, not entirely seriously, to his own godhood. The album finishes with “Sang Real,” an uplifting tribute to the internationalism in Juice’s own bloodline and his worldview.
There’s no pretence with Juice Aleem – the working title of this album “This Is Not For Everyone”. If you’re not interested in lyrical intelligence, in hip hop, in MCs with something to say, in Blackitude’s skank-funk, in ragged intellect, in ideas, in difference, in coming correct, then you may as well give it a miss. It’s an over-used phrase, but in terms of what hip hop is supposed to be about, Juice Aleem is the real deal. If you prefer the fake deal, the trendy bullshit, constant novelty without substance, then turn off now.
Juice Aleem - Jerusalaam Come - Album out on Big Dada 3rd August
http://www.myspace.com/jerusalaam 
| 
Juice Aleem - Jerusalaam Come - Album out on Big Dada 3rd August
NEBULA release new album 'Heavy Psych' August 3rd