jj
kills: 5
On their single Let Them (which appears here, in modified form, as Kill Them), jj achieved something magical. Lyrically, the song makes a pass at being a hip-hop swag track: “fuck all you hoes,” “haters gonna hate,” “let them snitch, let them be, let them die.” Melodically, however, the hip-hop beat is overwhelmed by the airy vocals and gorgeous atmosphere. It doesn’t sound like a typical self-hyping track. A closer look at the lyrics reveals that self-doubt does creep in. The odd phrasing of some lines, e.g. “guess I’ll have to show/I’m somebody you should know,” “it ain’t my fault they at the bottom,” and “I wish you scary shit/that make you run, make you hide,” reveals that the group consists of outsiders tentatively trying their hand. That innocence and sweetness behind the braggadocio makes up a lot of the band’s charm, and helps make Let Them their best song to date.
Before Let Them came out as a single, jj frequently hinted at this aspect of their character. Their first release, jj n° 1, consisted of two songs, My Life, My Swag and My Swag, My Life. Ecstasy from jj n° 2 reinvents Lil Wayne’s Lollipop. And My Way, the B-side to the Let Go single, even has Lil Wayne rapping on it. Their new mixtape, Kills, however, is the first time they’ve fully devoted themselves to plundering hip-hop to form the basis of their songs. Every song here prominently samples hip-hop tracks (generally recent ones), including quoting many lyrics.
Kills opens with Still, the song on the album that most sounds like older jj (along with Kill Them), making it a good choice for an opener. Their beautiful female vocals float above a sample of Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.,” enchantingly dropping lines like “get drunk, get crunk, get fucked up,” which exploits the same opposition that propels Kill Them. It’s an introduction that shows the band’s charm in full force. The rest of the mixtape pushes in a newer direction, building off the foundation Still provides. On Die Tonight, they open with solo vocals that go heavy on autotune and echo effects, swiping lyrics from Robyn’s Hang With Me before turning (briefly) into a near-straight cover of Taio Cruz’s Dynamite. Massive overlistening of top 40 radio this summer (largely not by choice) has ruined what little appeal that song had for me, making me wish they had chosen a different song, but it does work for what it is. In any case, the song soon veers into more expansive territory for the closing section, which includes a sample of strings from Lil Wayne’s 3 Peat (I think) that fade in and out. It’s a much better example of reappropriation than the middle section, I think.
The whole mixtape, for the most part, is an exercise in such reappropriation, and this peaks on the next two songs. Kill Them and Kill You form a connected set. Kill Them, described above, samples Akon’s Right Now (Na Na Na), a “let’s get back together” song. jj cleverly swipe lyrics from Akon, turning a remorseful admission of having “said some things that weren’t true” to an accusation impugning the honesty of the group’s haters. The haters remain unnamed, a vague grouping of people connected only by an opinion. Kill You marks the opposite trend. It heavily samples M.I.A.’s Paper Planes (which I find amusing given M.I.A.’s heavy sampling of The Clash to make that song), a song every bit as vague in its condemnations as Kill Them. As the name Kill You suggests, however, Kill You is a much more personal song than its predecessor, attacking a lover. Immediately after turning a personal song into a vague attack, jj turn around and do the opposite in one of the best touches on Kills. It’s this sort of trick that sets Kills apart as being more than mere plundering.
jj continues running through hip-hop tropes with New Work, reminiscing about the good old days on top of a sample of Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind. Like Kill Them, jj adopts a typical hip-hop stance, but their strange phrasing (“we were kings of the street/not yet beaten by defeats”) reveals their outsider status. This doesn’t always work, though, as on the next song, Believe which recycles lyrical clichés much less convincingly than Kill Them or New Work, mostly because it lacks personality. The band adds nothing of their own to the theme of love being like a drug (hey Ke$ha), so the song just sounds like an anonymous version of that theme. For an album that relies so heavily on taking the work of others and making it one’s own, anonymity is a huge flaw, and it makes Believe the album’s weakest track.
Luckily, Pressure is a Privilege rights the ship. It heavily samples Dr. Dre’s Under Pressure, largely letting the song stand alone, interspersing some new vocals between the verses. The claustrophobic beat perfectly complements these sparse additions, which add just enough to assert the band’s personality, but mostly let the original song speak for itself. It’s the most overtly hip-hop song on the album because the original verses are included, and it provides good variety.
Just like Kill You and Kill Them make the most sense in the context of one another, the closing stretch of the album is unified. In this case, the theme is appreciation for and deference to Kanye’s new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Angels starts with a sample unrelated to Kanye, but includes the line, “who will survive in America/we survived in America,” a clear reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s contribution to Kanye’s album. The lyrical theme of the song in general is presenting themselves as gifts from the gods, which may or may not be a reference to Kanye’s ego.
With Boom, jj start sampling Kanye musically, twisting around Kanye’s Power. As the title suggests, Boom is the most upfront song on the album musically. Lyrically, it’s short and to the point: “K. West is a master/if we fast he is faster/fuck with us it’s disaster/motherfucker, fuck with us it’s disaster.” After a slower coda, Boom segues into High End, which samples both Dark Fantasy and Runaway from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, with the only lyrics being, “can we get much higher,” drawn from Dark Fantasy. Thematically, it’s fitting that jj end this way. As hip-hop plunderers, it makes sense that they’d show deference to Kanye, whose new album was a monumental event for hip-hop (though I personally don’t like it).
As a work of reappropriation, jj’s Kills ranks up with the best such albums (Believe aside). However, their greatest strength has always been their melodic sense. Kastlander has a beautiful voice, and mixing it with airy melodies makes for most of the band’s best moments. At times, e.g. Still and Kill Them, this strength is in full display. Unfortunately, the album sometimes falters here. Believe, in addition to being weak lyrically, suffers from having a weak vocal melody. Moreover, while it’s understandable that jj wouldn’t want to add too many of their own vocals to a section showing deference to Kanye West, the closing stretch really suffers from a lack of strong melodies. That makes it much easier for me to appreciate that stretch than to enjoy it. At its best, Kills reinvigorates jj after the lackluster jj n° 3, but I don’t see myself giving it many full listens in the future.
(very good)
(ok)