Best of Month: AotY #10: JID's "The Forever Story" via Dreamville / Interscope

 

In a lot of ways I think I’m afraid to cover hip hop on this blog. What do I, a white girl from New England, know about black music from Atlanta? Sure, I can enjoy it, I can criticize an instrumental or a melody choice but can I really analyze the lyrics in ways that I do with almost every review I post? Every year though, there’s always at least one record so strong I have to at least talk about it at year’s end and this time it’s JID.


I first heard JID on singles and features last year and all the music he dropped was on regular rotation for me. To me it was the brutally honest storytelling and a songwriting style that made two songs into one and made them work that kept me coming back for more. I knew I needed to hear a full length and despite the fact that I knew there was a back catalog to go into I wanted to hear what he had to say today first.


What came out did not disappoint. It had everything I loved about the songs I heard last year and though it was more of a wait than I expected it was all worth it. From the get go on first single “Surround Sound” JID is telling a story of his hometown to the tune of two completely different beats but manages to weave it all together seamlessly. The record paints the whole story; one of family struggle, discovering music, leaving home and looking back at what was wondering if you did it correctly but knowing the choices you made were your own. Without the final track “2007” the trail ends cold but fortunately the record was reposted to streaming services with the formally YouTube only track. I know I can’t relate to everything but I have my own strife with my family, I also left home to chase something bigger and I think that’s something worth sharing.


Support JID

Best of month directory

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The BRAT review

Image
Oh my gosh, Claudia AsterTracks got a review out less than four months after the album is out! In all seriousness, I’ve been sitting on this review for a bit. It always feels weird to post long reviews about huge pop albums being an indie blog. Sometimes they’re just too long for MusicBoard though, so this one fit here. In spite of being gay, formerly terminally online and generally a fan of modern-day pop, I have actually never liked an entire Charli xcx project. I remember a very awkward conversation with an ex once after she found out I find it very hard to get to the end of even the twelve and a half minutes of Vroom Vroom. In spite of all of this I still want to stay current and know what albums are coming out, so I gave BRAT a try and I’m sort of blown away, I absolutely love this one. Something I noticed just minutes into BRAT is how the production is so bare and yet also feels so club ready . Opening track “360’ s ” beat is only about seven notes total with barely a drum...
Read more

Review: Get Off the Internet by Eliminate released via Create Music Group

Image
Sometimes you’re just here for the features. After a bit of a dry spell for me album wise, it was the debut album by dubstep artist Nathan Merrill, better known as Eliminate, which finally got me out of my seat. I’ll be honest, I came here solely because I saw Frost Children and I Set My Friends on Fire on the track list but was pleasantly surprised by the entire record. I had no perception of genre or who this artist was going into it. While I’m not usually a rave girl this is presented in a way where you don’t really have to be to appreciate what’s going on. There are a lot of nice, thought-out moments of downplay which don’t feel overblown or like they’re using cheap shots to make them memorable. It’s all just very real and expressive and most of the time it conveys this without words. The progression and sequencing is all very natural as well, pretty much all of these songs could be used as singles, but they also go hand in hand cohesively. I know I likely sound a little cynical to...
Read more

Review: analysis/paralysis by Four Year Strong released via Pure Noise

Image
Four Year Strong is a band who has always meant a lot to me growing up in New England. While I Specifically spent my adolescence in RI, Worcester was only a forty-minute ride and most of the shows I attended were out there. I'm less online now, but I have a feeling I know the consensus on this record isn't very hot. Being an over twenty-year-old easycore band in a time where scene bands are nostalgic acts can't be easy. But to be honest I quite enjoyed this one. Analysis paralysis as a record has a lot harder an edge than 2020's Brain Pain . The hardcore elements were never really missing from the Four Year Strong formula, but on this record songs like "aftermath/afterthought" are actual moshable moments, complete with a full breakdown, a lot of intensity and a guitar pedal like a buzzsaw. A part of me wonders if a band like this needs to be put on an indie music blog. I know lately we've shied away from this, but there's talks behind the scenes to ...
Read more