Reviewing the smoothest criminal mr Jack Harlow today for the first time. I'm going to be discussing the Kentucky native's 3rd studio LP, Jackman.
His big moment was meant to come in the form of his second studio LP Come Home The Kids Miss You, last year in 2022. Unfortunately, for Young Harleezy this album didn't reach the fans expectations and was panned by supporters and critics alike. And although the bland and unmemorable production and performance was a killer for Jack, I can certainly get behind rappers spitting the lyrics "sweet, sweet, sweet semen" more often.
So, onto Jackman. The initial comment to really make is that this album is incredibly short, at just 10 songs and 24 minutes, with all but 1 track sub 3 minutes, and 4 tracks sub 2 minutes, this project plays incredibly quick and finishes as quick as it starts, a problem I'm all too familiar with. Why was it so short? I don't know. We'll talk about the songs in a minute, but the sense that Jack didn't wanna put his neck out too much to avoid criticism potentially comes to mind, and maybe a lack of ideas and bars does too.
In terms of the music, a huge improvement from Come Home The Kids Miss You to Jackman, was the production. Out were the duller trap-based beats and in were flavoursome soul cuts. There was some excellent vocal samples and good drums too, honestly the production alone makes Jackman way more listenable and enjoyable than Come Home The Kids Miss You.
The first track Common Ground sees Jack already tackling content with a bit more substance as he discusses suburban white kids appropriating Hip Hop. He makes some interesting points, nothing that hasn't been said before necessarily, but I definitely think it's a good conversation to have. He is, in a way though, dissing and judging the majority of his fan base and fails to understand how he may have benefited through the culture that he is talking about. He never really goes to 'deep' into any of it either, for example, why has this happened and why is it happening, what does he think will happen in the future with Hip Hop, or even why it's is a negative thing and what does it say about society, as well as Hip Hop. I like the focus of the song, but he never really explains his own position on it. Nonetheless a fairly decent opener and the gospel "woo's" in the background made it a pretty nice listen.
Track number 2 was They Don't Love It, and was the one track to get a music video too. Definitely one of the best cuts with Jack flowing pretty well over the Kanye-esque soul chop, he's in a nice pocket of the beat and altogether makes for a decent song. The opening line "I've been smooth for so long, I'm tryna get rough", made me chuckle though and I think sums up this whole album really. Jack should just be himself, I think he's trying a bit too hard to be edgier but he's as edgy as a circle unfortunately. I'm certainly not the gatekeeper of cool but the quicker Jack can accept he's a smooth, normal, chart, mainstream rapper the better. Because then he may drop something that sounds like Jackman which has a nice, authentic sound, but then we wouldn't get Jack talking about how much he wants to grow a beard.
Is That Ight? was another stronger track, where Jack delivers these bars towards the start of the song where he puts a little cadence, a little flavour onto his flow and creates a nice melody that hits the ear really well, when he says, "No sport cars and no ice, okay maybe a little ice we all got a lil' vice, no selfies jus say "Hi", I'm so healthy and a-live". I thought that bit sounded awesome, but we didn't get anything like that again on the album. I understand this album was Jack trying to prove he can really spit, and he's your favourite rappers favourite rapper, but the lack of any catchiness was really felt when the rapping was itself a bit average, even over a very short album.
Then we have the storytelling track Gang Gang Gang where Jack tackles some heavy content including his mates being outed as paedophiles and rapists. So yeah, in the song Jack's friend tells Jack about their mutual friends 'Kevin' and 'Marcus' and the horrifying rumours and stories that have come out about them. I appreciate the darker attempt at social commentary, but the execution of the storytelling was shit. The verses were so short that he never really delves into much detail and half of the verses are just him and his mate confirming that they're on about the same guy, "marcus? our marcus? yeah, our marcus?". Not saying that he wouldn't, but in the song he never actually condemns the actions either. It's good to see him trying his hand at storytelling but I just don't think he has the chops to pull it off in a clever way. He has the choice of any names to give his characters and he goes with 2 names that he fails to ever rhyme with anything good. The stories are really short and even shorter on detail, which is a shame because there's a much better attempt at a cohesive narrative later in the album. In the sarcastic chorus and the 3rd verse Jack calls out the hypocrisy of mates whom would back there friends up regardless of what their friends may have done - I guess the take home message is, don't do that because people can do some fucked up things. I agree with that sentiment but his point feels a little bit muddled and hard to gauge. Maybe his point was just he had some friends and now he doesn't because of what they did, that's how I take the song when reading it on a more surface level. The sleepy instrumental deserves big praise though.
A couple of songs later we have the track It Can't Be, where Jack is addressing criticism that he's only popular because of his white skin. He lists a bunch of other reasons as to why he's successful that are no doubt true, such as the homage that he's paid to the culture, the late nights grafting in the studio, staying grounded with his friendship group of pre-fame, and the talented artists that he spins in his ipod such as Biggie, Nas and OutKast. But a big reason for his success is because he's white, just facts. Maybe if his album before was better than he wouldn't have read this criticism. Put it this way, Eminem's first 2 studio albums are legendary and lyrical masterpieces with certified 'classic' status, and on his 3rd he admitted his skin was cause to his global appeal.
The penultimate track Blame On Me was a definite highlight, a storytelling track (and the only song over 3 minutes in length) where Jack takes on 3 different perspectives. Firstly, from Jack's younger brother, then in the second verse himself, and lastly in the 3rd verse, his Dad. It's a really heartfelt song that pulls back the curtain on Jack's relationship with his brother and father and includes some really sad and poignant moments. There feels like a lot of regrets and unsaid things that Jack gets off his chest, in the way he treated his little brother and the distance that grew between them whilst growing up. The same can be said for his relationship of himself and his brother with his Dad. You get a good insight to Jack's family-oriented psyche and his self-criticism for how things with his family may have turned out. Yeah, a real gem in the tracklist, awesome introspective content, good creativity with the POV switches, and the beat was another sleepy soulful bop.
The final song Questions was another concept track with 1 verse of Jack asking a bunch of questions to the listener. It's a decent closer but there's just 1 bar I need to call out for it's hypocrisy, it's the line where he says "what makes you think I'd rather have backpackers applauding me?". Well to answer that Jack, you, you make me think that. If you don't want approval from Hip Hop heads then why did you go from trap, chart-chasing music to soul-chop Boom Bap with limited mainstream and commercial appeal and minimal hooks? You obviously do what backpack rap fans to rate you, and it's hard to see otherwise. That's fine too, loads of lyrical rappers will want respect from that crowd of people into lyrical Hip Hop, but Jack's here denying that he does, despite everything about this album suggesting otherwise.
To conclude my thoughts on this album, if nothing else, it's a quick 30 minute record with some sick beats. It should get a release with just the instrumentals, I could see it being a popular beat tape. The rapping over the production was competent. Nothing ground-breaking for sure, but equally nothing bad enough to distract you from the beats either. Jack himself is a bang average rapper. There's potential he could improve in the future of course. He could provide a wider variety of flows for example, maybe spit some more difficult flows. He could explore storytelling rap further as we've seen he's obviously got a bit of a taste for that on Jackman. Maybe he could put in some nice melodies into his verses and hooks to make them stick a bit more, especially if the bars aren't gonna pull up any trees any time soon. There's nothing on Jackman that'd rush to show or tell anyone about.
Art work opinions?
It's alright, matches Jack's intent to look a bit rough round the edges.
Where would I listen to this album
It's a laid back album so would sound fine in the background just chilling. As I said, there's nowt I'd show to my friends. You could make the effort to take the lyrics in, but if you don't, then don't worry you're not missing out on too much, content-wise or technically.
Star Track - Blame On Me
3/10
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