| The Wayniac Moves in Silence | November 21, 2013 |
Max Bell put beer in the school water fountains. Jonwayne has one of the best live sets around right now, rap or otherwise. I’ve seen him at least four times this year, and he’s managed to leave me captivated, spellbound, etc. each time — I cannot say the same of other rappers I’ve seen multiple times […]
| Poison Crackers: Jonwayne’s Rap Album One | October 30, 2013 |
The bad egg straight from a bad duck, Jonwayne, dropped his debut rap album yesterday. Bluntly titled, Rap Album One, the contents are as no-frills and sharp-edged as the cover. If you want to find the emotions, send the scalpel underneath the jittery tense synthesizers. Falling Deeper is the refrain repeated at the end of […]
Max Bell is not fragile. If you’re reading this, you’ve heard of Jonwayne, the “rap game Sam Beckett,” the “open toed Blowedian.” (see here, here, here, or here). Yesterday, marked the release of Cassette 3: The Marion Morrison Mixtape, the third tape in the “Cassette Trilogy.” Taking its name from actor John Wayne — his […]
| Jonwayne’s Notes to Himself | June 13, 2013 |
Jonah Bromwich wants to see the dirt. Is there room for Jonwayne? That’s the question he’s asking himself, as the ghost of his better self flagellates him for oversleeping, for looking like a buffoon, for not being grateful, for not being all he can be. It’s an exceedingly well-written single, channeling the stress of the […]
| Beer Caps and Bobsleds: Jonwayne and Zeroh’s “Cool Runnings” | April 22, 2013 |
I’ve started and deleted about a half dozen intros in an attempt to describe “Cool Runnings.” This track taken from Jonwayne’s Cassette 2 exists to defy description. He and Zeroh rap like Kid Icarus, words as arrows, patterns that dip and dive like an aerial show. Sandal game is impeccable. Too many things go right […]
| The Passing Fancies of Jonwayne | March 25, 2013 |
Jonah Bromwich has the Neptune blues In his own singularly unappealing way, Joey Bada$$ expressed an important idea about DOOM. In his interview with Narudwar, Joey pointed out that the man with metal fingers is an important influence for those know who about him, but could never be mainstream, “because that just wouldn’t be dope.” […]
| Shots Fired Episode 18: The Indie Episode Ft. Jonwayne & Milo | February 28, 2013 |
The idea for the latest Shots Fired episode was to invite Milo and Jonwayne on to partake in a 30-year survey of the history of independent rap. After all, they are two of the best 90s babies rappers on independent labels. Then we decided to use the hour to talk about strippers, Dragon Ball Z, […]
| Jonwayne, Nine Hunna | February 19, 2013 |
If you want to assess the evolution of the Wayniac contrast his newest “900” with the beats on his formal debut, Bowser. The latter was recorded when he was still a teen and rode the wave of 8-bit flips and Mario Bros. slaps. It hit hard but there was little dynamics. What the descendent of […]
| Happiness is a Warm Funk | July 30, 2012 |
Dam Funk looking dapper in the retro Starter jacket and offering up some self-described summer time glides. “Happy” feels like a modern funk riff on Slave’s “Watching You,” maybe best known to you in the “Never Seen Before (Remix).” Like the EPMD track, this is also the uncut raw. Dam’s new single “I Don’t Want […]
