Album Review: Jeremiah Jae - Raw Money Raps

You wait ages for an album of snack-size left-field clunkery and off-beat rhyming to come along, and then two arrive at once. A couple of months back Geoff Barrow, 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst's Quakers project gave us music for the ADHD generation; Jeremiah Jae's debut is another tranche of two minute units, this one with Brainfeeder label boss Flying Lotus' fingerprints all over it.

FlyLo lights the touch-paper and Jeremiah launches skyward, landing somewhere between Anticon and Stones Throw with more than a ripple and a little less than a splash. Rhyme-wise, Jae's bong-water flow meanders from the feline on Cat Fight ( “Black tie affair, you act wild, who cares / sitting taking pictures while the underdog tears”) to the solicitous (“We only want the money and the food” from Money And Food). Beats are, for the most part, a lo-fi hypnotic papyrus upon which Jae can graph his glyphs.

Jeremiah Jae is stepping up, out and into the company of the 2012 alt. rap brooding crew. “Another one?” comes the cry from the poppers, the breakers and the block party DJs. Yes, another one. What sets him apart are tracks like The Great Escape and Cable. The first is backed by a half-mariachi, half-son guitar loop, the latter a mess of sub-marine squelch and passive/aggressive strings; both hold attention with covetous zeal. He's not towering over his peers with Raw Money Raps, but the top of the logo on his snapback hat is clearly visible above the crowd.