Juno Recommends Hip Hop / R&B July 2020

Review: This is a sure fire reissue of a classic jam from Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, the eighties hip hop and rap duo whose matching tracksuits and perfectly sharp flat tops tell you all you need to know about their lovably old school style. Both cuts here are snatched from their debut album Girls I Got 'Em Locked in 1987 and immediately take you back to those golden glory days. The titular cut is a chest pumping anthem with big stabs and the flip is a more smooth broken beat with perfectly timed flow.

Review: To our ears, there are few greater golden era dancefloor hip-hop workouts than Main Source's "Looking At The Front Door", a stone-cold classic that remains a much-played anthem decades after it was originally released. Here the 1990 jam gets the reissue treatment. It's available in both vocal and instrumental versions, with both sides doing a great job in showcasing the duo's killer beat - a fine mixture of crunchy drums, woozy electric piano chords, scratched-in samples and toasty bass. Naturally it's the vocal version that we'd reach for more often than not - the trio's flows are particularly good on 'Looking At The Front Door' - but the instrumental is nevertheless a useful tool to have at your disposal.

Review: This third album from Post Malone was his second to top the Billboard 200 Chart. Once again it was defined by his melancholic style but was also filled with plenty of charm thanks to his versatile voice. His choruses once again shine through whether he's snarling and angry or more vulnerable and falsetto. Fans call it his best yet and the blend of genres he explores here certainly make that a fair shout. Add in the fact that Ozzy, La flame and SZA all feature and he might well have outdone himself.

Review: Remarkably, Pete Rock's second full-length collaboration with veteran Bronx rap duo Camp Lo has never previously been released on any physical formats. It's therefore rather exciting that it has finally landed on wax some seven years after the album originally hit digital download stores. Constructed like a mixtape with intros, outros, spoken word snippets and interludes aplenty, the set sees Camp Lo add conscious, laidback rhymes to a plethroa of typically tight, groovy, jazzy and sample-heavy Pete Rock beats. Of course, the latter can pretty much do no wrong, so his backing tracks were always going to be fire; happily, Camp Lo's vocals are every bit as good.

Review: Canadian beat maker Citizen Kane mixes up the golden era sounds of his production heyday with elements of soul and funk from years gone by. "Soul Survivor" here first came in 1995 on a full length, then got pressed to 7" in 2018 and now gets erupted by Treehouse. It's a laidback joint with bottomless kicks, swirling pads and free flowing vocals that sink you in nicely. "Scartown Beats" is a little more upright, with horn stabs and xylophone melodies colouring in the airwaves nicely. Both tracks are the sort of timeless tunes any hip hop head needs in their collection.

Review: A decade has passed since Slum Village jumped on a KVBeats instrumental and delivered "We Do It", a warm, sweet and bass-heavy number full of the Detroit act's usual on-point rap flows. Here the track is given a 2020 makeover courtesy of hired hands DJ Spinna and Jazz Spastiks. Spinna naturally opts for a distinctively "Golden era" vibe, laying the Motor City crew's raps over a relaxed, head-nodding beat rich in jazzy double bass samples, crunchy snares and woozy electric piano chords. The jazz Spastiks up the tempo on their flipside version, delivering a revision that's closer in tone to Slum Village's original while offering all manner of subtle differences and dancefloor-focused touches.