We are in the anno domini one nine, nine one, it's normal that some artist was lost on the street, that he was taken from New York along with his albums. This is one of those cases, the album is just one and it's "Streetwise", the artist who made it chose the name of J Rock — a pseudonym sadly abused over the years with all the possible variants — rapper from Newburgh, halfway between Albany and New York.
This guy could easily be your generic rapper, there's some random rhyme but also many well-considered lines and well-made socio-conscious cuts, in addition to the tasteless braggadocio ones and the crossover fillers ("Don't Sleep On Me" jumps on the hip house trend). The effort is produced by Ghetto Groovz Records, a local label founded by the producer and DJ of J Rock, a certain Jeff Murphy.
The two also make a video for the single "Drug Dealer" (aka "Neighborhood Drug Dealer"), socio-conscious track with a nice jazzy funky lean rhythm on a drug dealer who at the end of the video is found by the police with an envelope full of coke and arrested; a few months after the release of the single, Jeff Murphy himself will be arrested in similar circumstances.
So why should you listen to this effort? For the production. The production is made by Premier! Man, What? The production is provided by DJ Premier, in part, he places four beats on it (in tracks that I marked as "sufficient"... maybe J Rock didn't give his best there) and the introductory track is produced by Easy Mo Bee, with a rhythm cheerful funky with heavy skinny and syncopated drum machine and a pre-g-funk sound yes... nobody would ever say that this is an Easy Mo Bee beat and those taken out of Preemo are indistinguishable, a sign that J Rock has done a good job even in production or that the sound of the legendary producer doesn't yet have its typical style and probably reality lies in the middle. As already labeled by others, it's a forgotten East Coast record of the good old days, it deserves more attention.
Rating: 7/10.
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