’ve been waiting for a hip-hop album like J-Live’s All of the Above for a while now; I’ve been craving hip-hop with lush beats and rich lyrics, hip-hop with no audio gimmickry and songs that never fail to tell a story. J-Live calls it “true school” hip-hop, and it's a perfectly appropriate term. On All of the Above, J-Live completely transcends all the conventions of both glossy corporate hip-hop and gritty, harsh underground hip-hop and makes something else- pure hip-hop.


J-Live is a man with a lot to say, and he says it intelligently. The first track, "First Things First", starts things off with J-Live greeting- his family, pimps, and even working class people. He uses the universal greeting of peace, making it clear that his music is for anybody and everybody who hears it (which is more than P-Diddy or Cannibal Ox can say from their opposite ends of the hip-hop spectrum.) J-Live then moves into "How Real It Is", giving us our first glimpse of the socially conscious lyrics that his fans came to know and love on his debut album The Best Part. Lyrics like “the illest weapon you can load ain’t your nine, boy / it’s your brain / and there’s a lot of gangsters that would tell you the same” and “every extra breath since your birth / has been a blessing” give a good idea of J-Live’s street-level state of mind as well as how concisely and effectively he states ideas that take other rappers entire songs to convey.


"How Real It Is", though, is just a warm-up for "Satisfied?", one of the standout tracks on All of the Above. "Satisfied?" features a combination of a bouncing, almost ska-like, beat and some roots-reggae vocals in the chorus. J-Live addresses the very real issue of complacency in day-to-day life. He also addresses the after effects of 9/11 more capably than just about any of the other rappers who have attempted to do so. J-Live avoids the trappings of a faux epic sound of someone like Nas and simply drops a verse like "now it's all about NYPD caps and Pentagon bumper stickers / but yo, you're still a nigga / It ain't right them cops and them firemen died, that shit is real tragic / but it damn sure ain't magic / It won't make the brutality disappear / It won't pull equality from behind you ear / It won't make a difference in a 2 party country / if the President cheats to win another 4 years / And don't get me wrong, there's no place I'd rather be / The grass ain't greener on the other genocide / But tell Huey Freeman don't forget to mow the lawn /and uproot the weeds, cause I'm not satisfied.” I don’t know about you, but I find this more effecting, for example, than Ghostface boasting “Mr. Bush sit down / I’m in charge of the war!”


This eloquence and effectiveness is what I like most about J-Live, and I love the fact that it is so evident by the third song. He has stories of every variety to tell, but his most impressive tale is on "One For The Griot", in which he effortlessly relates the narrative of a man waking up in a foreign bed and concludes with three different endings for the story. “He woke up in a daze / back aching / breath smelling like liquor / dick smelling like sex / head throbbing like the bass from the club last night / no idea how he left / needless to say, perplexed...” alternately ends in tragedy, a threesome, and utter comedy. This is the kind of song that has for the most part gone MIA in recent hip-hop, bringing to mind old-skool classics done by the likes of Biz Markie and Slick Rick. There aren’t very many MC’s even capable of attempting a song like this, but I’m nonetheless hoping he starts some trends with it.


Several more songs deserve recognition: the beautifully successful autobiographical verse of "Charmed Life", the verbal flexing and boasting of "MCee", the anti-playa sentiment of "Like This Anna", and the soulful introspection of "Nights Like This" are all highlights. The entire album ably maintains a high level of quality, rarely faltering below a level of “solid fucking hip-hop” and frequently eclipsing it. The weakest aspect of the album is without a doubt the beats, with the large majority being provided by J himself. DJ Spinna and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s A Touch of Jazz production crew also help on some songs and even those are always at least adequate, if not sometimes perfect for whatever type of flow J-Live happens to be kicking at that particular moment. I don’t mind the slight missteps that the beats occasionally take, in light of what J-Live has to say, and maybe the most impressive thing about the album is that in spite of clocking in at just under 80 minutes and 21 tracks, it doesn’t ever sound repetitive or boring. All of the Above is a sparkling breath of fresh air, and if there is any justice in the world of independent hip-hop, will instigate some new trends worth looking forward to.