Krushed Grapes: Devoted to the Art of Moving Butts (this is a Tribe Called Quest line) Hanif Jamiyl defies the Hiphop personas of gangsters, pimps, and thugs. Rather, he takes on the role of a hands-on-sex-ed-teacher-turned-rapper. He has been making music since age 10, hailing from Massachusetts. Jamiyl shared the mic with the Hiphop trio, Maspyke (who haven’t released an album since 05) until releasing his solo debut, “Krushed Grapes”.
He has shared the stage with notable Hiphop artists; Mos Def, Slick Rick, Clipse, J5, EPMD, and Xzibit to name a few. His style seems to try and incorporate the early sex-facades of Ice-T and Slick Rick, unfortunately these idols don’t adequately bleed through his work.
Don’t get him twisted with “gats in holsters, girls on shoulders” though, he doesn’t rap about guns, money, or beef . . . instead he raps about sex, sex, sex, and in a tasteless manner.
“Krushed Grapes” sounds like a watered-down version of Kool Keith’s Sex Style along with a cheap knock-off of Slum Village’s Fantastic Vol. 2. The album seems lightly inspired from the Detroit Duo (Slum Village) as well as an R-Rated R-Kelly.
However, Jamiyl attempts to use his palpable “sexual charm” and witty lyrics to capture a sort of “mature” Hiphop nature, reminiscent of 90’s R&B. Too bad this “mature” demeanor doesn’t pull through.
This seemingly marginal style actually deems him a Hiphop Marvin Gaye according to a recent press release. Nonetheless, Jamiyl’s tracks are nowhere near “Sexual Healing”, instead, his style is more evocative of the older soul artist, Andre Williams. However, Williams possessed an uncanny attitude that exhibited sordidly careless, yet crafty conception, unlike Jamiyl.
Jamiyl’s rhythm and candid prose place him in the earphones of late Hiphop and R&B bloomers with a sour taste for an emcee that reveals the female as a nasty, yet classy individual. “Krushed Grapes” feels like it caters to immature pre-pubescent kids or, at the most, to the high school locker room boys, but it certainly doesn’t seem to portray a “mature” status that it is trying to illustrate.
Throughout his songs, female narrators lunge toward him like anxious cougars on the prowl. The first song sets up the entire album’s tone. It’s not a traditional introduction where the emcee just rambles off names and gives shout-outs to whomever. Jamiyl simply gets down to business and asks women to take their “panties” off.
It’s a shameless portrayal of elegant playerism. At times it sounds similar to a hypnotist working on a patient, with repetitive verses that attempt to strengthen his performance as a “sexually-charming” emcee, yet lacking any real substance and hype.
This album sounds like it could be the soundtrack to soft-core porn, allowing infamous acts such as Poison Clan, 2 Live Crew, and Tweedy Bird Loc to dominate the X-rated-porn rank.
Thankfully, Jamiyl does however drop some lyrics that incite strong images of what he is all about, so at least he‘s genuine in that regard; “I pop bottles with America’s next top models and wine ain’t the only thing that got swallowed.” This is only one of many verses that are similar in nature.
He raps about candy lips, thick milkshakes, blackberry-flavored women, honey-wine, spankings, jiggling bodies, gyration, moving butts, and an array of other monotonous raps.
On an optimistic note, the 8th track, Intoxicated, brings some refreshing loops to the ear. It’s a pleasant instrumental that embodies a Common/Kweli-like beat, a Lauryn Hill vocal loop, and a scratchy ska guitar. Unfortunately the track cuts short at 50 seconds.
From here on out, the 6 remaining tracks encompass better beat production than the previous 7, seeing the likes of 88-Keys on Just A Nut, who aims to keep the track grounded in a Common-Kanye mash-up.
Too bad Jamiyl’s lyrics can’t keep up. They seem to intrude on 88-Keys beats; “…I’m a Trojan man, here’s the plan, pull a fresh pad out, pull the bo-sack out, cock my weapon, and blow ya’ back out.” Yes, these are actual thought-out lyrics that are suppose to be for “mature“ Hiphop listeners!
Overall, Jamiyl’s prose is an adverse style that taints “ Krushed Grapes“ with a poorly orchestrated immature-sex-theme. There are no club-bangers, 808s, DJ scratching, guest emcees, or hype verses, instead the album perpetuates low-standard Hiphop.
-- Listen to a track for yourself via
MYSPACE. i won't post the entire album --
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