Will Schube only reads Playboy (for the articles).
As if releasing one of the year’s best rap albums wasn’t enough, Jonwayne has created a record label, hustling heavy on his production game. After handling most of the beats on his own Rap Album 2, Wayne has shifted over to a full-time producer role, helping Danny Watts create Black Boy Meets World, out September 22nd on Wayne’s Authors Recording Company. The label has been an experimental lab for Jonwayne, who’s used this platform to release one-off maxi-singles and Rap Album 2, linking with Daddy Kev’s Alpha Pup. With Black Boy Meets World, the LA-based emcee introduces his audience to the first non-Wayne Authors signee.
Watts is based out of Houston and the album’s first single, “Young & Reckless (Feat. Aye Mitch!),” blends the narcotized flows of H-Town legends with a sing-song chorus more attuned to the modern climate of rap music. His flow is assured and varied, switching to clear-headed double time atop dusty drums and an intoxicating piano loop. “Young and reckless / We don’t follow directions / We just ignore the message / Then fall back on aggression” he raps during the chorus. Watts’ laconic hook could be mistaken for millennial ambivalence, but there’s a hardened edge of real world experience deep in the recesses of his voice. On “Young & Reckless,” Danny Watts emerges fully-formed, crisp, defiant, and with a twist in style to stand out. Clearly, he’s been studying his Jonwayne textbook.
