SoundDiego: Album Review: Real J. Wallace – The Jah Father of Soul Cal

December 22, 2011 by Quan Vu 5 Comments


I reviewed Real J. Wallace’s mixtape over at SoundDiego. He says it’s the length of the 94 highway and I tested it like an asshole. I think dude owes me gas money. I ended up driving into terrifying hick territory where I was almost certain someone was gonna shoot my Oriental face off.

Anyway, a snippet below and the full review here:

The music is, of course, soulful and funky. There’s a reason these breaks were sampled in the first place, and that’s because they were great songs to begin with. Real J’s rhymes feature a familiar mix of technical prowess, spirituality, black-culture references (notably, “the big piece of chicken” from a Chris Rock bit), everyman resolve and crass sexuality, just in case you thought he was getting too serious (to wit, there’s a song with several puns on different terms for oral sex). It’s lyrically satisfying, though there’s a jarring disconnect between his soft-spoken voice and his occasional vulgarity. Clearly, one of those has to go, and hopefully, it’s not the vulgarity.

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  • William_will

    I’ve seen you review thiss guy a few times & your reviews have made me pass on his projects, after listeing to this and giving Real J Wallace a chance I come to find he is witty honest and a breath of fresh air. I find it odd that your site seems to love “ganster” rap and all its vulgarity and mislead truths but you talk down honest & crative music such as this project. I’m interested to see what you will say about this Godspeed JahBless project I just downloaded from the other cat from Brother Nature. I understand difference in taste but damn Quan Vu you really do have some sort of unspoken hate for these guys.

  • http://www.sdraps.com Quan Vu

    “Hate” is pretty strong but here are my biases, the best I can figure. There are a lot of factors at work here and I’ll try my best to address them.

    In regards to gangster rap, yeah, I mean, I’d be lying if it were as straightforward as there just being a lot of good gangster rap. My “love” for gangster rap is at least partially a political statement. Gangster rap is dying and most people are saying “Good riddance” to the vulgarity, violence, immorality, etc. But I got this strong fear that the death of gangster rap also equates to a silencing of the voiceless people that gangster rap is supposed to speak for. I’m a fan of Kanye but the celebreality rap that he popularized just worries me more that hip-hop is getting less and less connected with actual people. There are for sure plenty of issues with gangster rap. But there’s still this general idea that they’re at the bottom of society and their trying to come up.

    About Brother Nature, I’ve met them but I don’t really know them personally. They didn’t like steal my girlfriend or get me fired or anything. At one point, they did correctly call me out for not really being in the scene, going to shows, etc. and I’ve tried to be better about that since then. This isn’t a personal vendetta, but I’d understand if you wanted to take that way out.

    Anyways, yeah, I’m biased against them for a few reasons and I might have stated before. Off top, they often rhyme over other artist’s instrumentals, which is something I hate listening to. They get points for not being a super-generic mixtape rhyming over like “Negaz In Paris” for the umpteenth time or something. But still, if I recognize the original song, it’s a fight not to just hear the original song in my head instead of Brother Nature’s song.

    Second and probably more telling, I’m working through my bias against backpack rap that purports to be smart or something. Basically, I used to think the second wave Native Tongues (Roots, Mos, Kweli, Common) were really gonna fucking change the whole world, overthrow the oppressive system, etc. And then they didn’t. And then I started getting this sneaking suspicion that I was really getting played with my optimism, that the “smart rappers” thing was just another marketing scheme that they got me with. While I’m slowly starting to get into I guess optimism again (thank G-Side, Kendrick Lamar), yeah, I associate Brother Nature with a class of artists that broke my heart a little. Although to be fair, I throw Piff PCH into that same category and he just happened to have incredible skills to completely override my bias.

    The last very telling factor is that I’m a small nerd who got picked on in school. I like rappers who didn’t get picked on in school or who can now beat the shit out of the people who picked on them in school or can get revenge in some way or another. Basically, they’re macho assholes that I wish I could’ve been on some level. Brother Nature have soft voices and do not sound like macho assholes most of the time.

    I threw the comment on vulgarity in the review because I think it adds a new dimension to Real J. Wallace that I hadn’t heard or noticed before and it’s that he can crack jokes like an asshole sometimes. I think that’s important because then the other, non-vulgar stuff just sounds more believable and not like some agenda-driven college essay. Plus, I just like hearing inappropriate jokes.

    Biases stated, the reason I keep coming back to them is because, first of all, they’ve impressed other rappers who impress me. Secondly, I know my biases and I’m trying to wrestle with those biases. That’s the best I can do. If you can find me someone else who will write about them without sounding like an agenda-driven college essay, I would love to hear their take.

  • Tomham

    ^^^ You OBVIOUSLY have NEVER listened to Treali Duce or Lil Spank (two rappers than receive a fair amount of coverage on this blog). Because if you had you SURLEY would understand that “gangster” rap (& those two artists in particular) offers FAR more than vulgarity OR misleading truths. It’s “Blues” (Too Short, NWA) as opposed to “Jazz” (Black Star, ATCQ), with Real J falling closer to the Jazz end of the spectrum.          

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