Description

2xLP Vinyl – LP 2385

The debut studio album from Joey Bada$$, aka NYC hip hop prodigy Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott. Featuring beats from a aubstantial roster of producers including DJ Premier, Hit-Boy and J Dilla as well as Bada$$’s pals in Brooklyn hip hop collective Pro Era, this record is a dense, layered ride.

As it moves from warm, old school turntablism to the colder, harsher sounds of early gangster rap, B4.DA.$$ resists the current bent towards Trap, instead functioning as a love letter to the masters of hip hop’s Golden Age from one of its keenest students. And while the album’s three singles, ‘Big Dusty,’ ‘Christ Conscious’ and ‘No. 99,’ had suggested this would be a relentlessly dark affair,  B4.DA.$$ has its fair share of light, showcasing Bada$$’s obvious knack for a hook time and time again. Opener ‘Save The Children’, for example, is a lusciously elegant jazz jam courtesy of Statik Selektah, while ‘Curry Chicken’, a gorgeous, tender ode to the enduring influence of the rapper’s mother is hip hop at its most sensitive.

At over an hour long, it’s a collection which could do with a slightly more ruthless approach in the cutting room but that’s a minor nit-pick when the material is this strong. Make no mistake, Bada$$’s star is in the ascendancy.