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Review Summary: Back with an attitude of happiness and bad influence. What always struck me as noteworthy about Rav ever since I heard him for the first time on Kill Bill's fantastic „Ramona“ last year, was the amount of cynicism and energy he brought to the table when he was talking about his depression. He was spitting some seriously sad lines about his life, but he was so slick with it. And the snide, frustrated, self-aware delivery was really charismatic as well. I immediately checked his debut-EP „Hyperkinesis“. And it was good. It basically underscored my impression of him, but it didn't necessarily establish him as an artist as much as I hoped it would. But it still had very good songs, like his remix of „Pumped Up Kicks“ and the song about his Vicodin addiction called „Vicodin“. So I started looking out for everything he released, and when his follow-up to Hyperkinesis came out, I was interested in hearing what he was gonna do.
Let me start off by saying that BTTJ is a very smooth and chill project. Production-wise, that is. Most of the beats he chooses have a very layered, relaxed, jazz-ish style. From the beautiful vocal-sample in the first beat, over the trippy lead-synth and verse-sections of „Devil Fruit Smoothies“, the chopped up „Addlerall“, the noir-inspired sounding horns of „A Better Place“ to the faster piano of „Get Mine II“, the project has a very nice and natural flow and sound which allows for easy listening and creates a comfortable atmosphere.
What really stole the show, however, was Rav himself He rides every single beat with impeccable ease. One slick flow after another slick flow, he presents us parts of his life, his depression and his unusually punk attitude. He packs a lot of energy on most of the tracks, most notably on „Get Mine II“ and „A Better Place“, where he just explodes with one-liners. But the most important thing is that Rav as a rapper is now more refined. He hits just the right balance between self-loathing, being cocky and being relatable. Mix that with personal stories, complex rhyming-schemes and at times rapid-fire flows, and you got one hell of an artist.
Not to forget his features, though. Except for the intro/outro and the first real track, there is at least one guest on every song. Kill Bill makes three memorable appearances, one of which lets him perform as his Jinzo, Scuare snapes on both of his appearances, suddlenuance has a solid verse and Rekcahdam and Ashido Brown form „A Better Place“ into a true standout-track. But even with all the features, this record still feels very much like it belongs to Rav, which should be commended.
All in all, this is a very strong project by a very interesting MC, who finally really established himself as an artist, with a unified sound and lot's of character and attitude. Things are looking really good for him as an artist, if every following project is as good as this is, and this definitely made him an artist to watch, if he wasn't already.
| other reviews of this album |
Josh (3.5)
A smooth, slow, and even somewhat jazzy rap record....
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Album Rating: 4.0
Stream: https://exordiummusic.bandcamp.com/album/beneath-the-toxic-jungle
Happy holidays, y'all. As a present I've entered the arena of reviewing yet once again. This is my first review in quite some time, so any constructive criticism is MORE than welcome, still feeling kinda shakey.
Shoutout to Rav for being a cool dude, btw.
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Not a bad review, but there are a couple grammatical errors:
Idk if the „“thing is common in German but in English we use ""
"What really stole the show, however, was Rav himself"
Missing a period
"first time on Kill Bills fantastic „Ramona“ last year"
Missing an apostrophe on Kill Bill's
"amount of cynicism and energy he brought to the table when he was talking about his depressions."
Depression is singular, there is no plural
"doing it with so slick"
I'd reword to "he was slick with it"
"And the snide, frustrated, self-aware delivery was really charismatic as well, "
Replace comma at the end with a period and capitalize the 'so' after it.
"It basically undermined my impression of him"
Underscore, undermine means the exact opposite of what you meant
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, the quotation marks like that are common in Germany. My keyboard can't change them, though.
Otherwise, thank you! Fixed everything.^^
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
" As a present I've entered the arena of reviewing yet once again"
... thaanks...
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I know, I know, I shouldn't have. But what can you say? I'm just that generous. Or sadistic. Pick. Preferably both.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
this is more fun than I thought it would be. enjoying it
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
This is pretty great, nice to see it has the same kinda feel that Ramona has.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
glad to see a review on this. well done. it's cool to see how far rav has come from his newgrounds days, lmao.
i wasn't able to cop this until a couple days ago but i'll be damned if i'm not about to forcibly burn myself out on it. addlerall is somehow fun as hell despite the lyrics. bill's verse on lavender reminds me strangely of something from You're Dead! ?
also, "What really stole the show, however, was Rav himself" is still missing a period ;)
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
this is some amateur hour shit but its decent and promising.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
i wouldnt call this amateur hour at all, but glad u kinda dugged it
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
he is a brand new bandcamp rapper who puts his stuff up for free and clearly sounds young and new to hip hop i mean he is pretty much literally the definition of amateur.
that doesnt mean he cant be good, but he sounds like an amateur as of yet.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Oh, i get what youre saying. I personally think this is pretty excellent in terms of presentation and writing, especially for an amateur/newbie rapper. Im super looking forward to what hes doing next.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
he definitely has yet to fill/find his voice. and some of the production was pretty just standard bedroom beatsmith stuff. i appreciate the tekkonkinkreet samples tho (even tho tbh im not sure they were all effectively used)
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
The dude has a pretty good ear for hooks at least, Solanine is the catchiest shit ever.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
yeah i dunno shits aight
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Eh, thats fair.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Hasn't Rav been around on Newgrounds for, like, 10 or so years dropping music? Wouldn't exactly call him a newbie.
That being said, I thought you would hate this, Potsy, makes me happy to see you kinda like it.
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