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about this album
As an independent music critic, I get a slew of hip hop artists across my desk on a daily basis. Put plainly, most of them tumble painfully into the realm of mediocrity, never to be heard from again. Their music is often inundated with cheap-sounding Garageband preset beats and lyrical cliches, making critics like myself somewhat jaded to the community they come out of. On occasion, however, there are indie hip hop artists that are doing great work. I think that’s the case with John J and his new EP, ‘Still Howling.’ ‘Still Howling,’ a new six track endeavor from the Bronx-based artist, lives and dies on its lyricism. While it’s a well-produced effort, the musical composition of this EP acts as a simple bed for John J’s ideas and musings. The production sits elegantly in the backdrop, never exploding beyond the artist. Thus, John J is at the center of this picture, which is excellent, because he’s a strong wordsmith. ‘If I Only Had,’ the introduction to the album, is quite an introspective jaunt through John J’s life. He explores what would happen if only had one life, one love, one night, etc. There’s a darker side to it, however, because John J explores less romantic ideas: if only he had opportunities that others did, if he only had the ability to explain his pain, and so on and so forth. The lyricism is profoundly poetic, and a beautiful portrait of John J’s inner triumphs and demons. The next track, ‘Move Me,’ is highly reminiscent of classic hip hop, especially in re
