Clik here to view.
“We were shopping out in Paris, seen Chateau Versailles/Which means we’re really on a plane when we say getting fly/I mean, who cool as I?/Deliberately stay fresh to death I call it suicide”
Jahzel hails from the North Side of Chicago, but the music he makes is totally distinct from the other hip-hop styles we’ve seen rising to prominence in the city during the last two years. Jahzel doesn’t deal in the schizophrenic lyrical somersaults of Chance the Rapper and the SaveMoney crew, the experimentalism of Tree or the bleak spartanism of drill . If anything, Jahzel is much more traditional than any of this other music, but I don't mean that pejoratively. Though he dabbles in trap and recently recorded in Atlanta, he’s clearly rooted in East Coast production and wordplay in the vein of Nas and Mr. (Shawn) Carter's breakthrough work.
On this appealing latest track, the aptly titled “Carefree,” his approach also harks back to that of fellow Chicago export Lupe Fiasco in his “Kick, Push” days. This is music with few hang-ups and plenty of DJ scratches- a soundtrack for cooling of any sort that's perfect for a summer hip-hop playlist. The production is handled by MMG/Wale collaborator Tone P.
Jahzel’s free album, In God’s Image, featuring “Carefree,” will be available on July 2nd. Follow Jahzel on Twitter for updates. For now, here's "Carefree":
