Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Entrancing beats and jazzy accents from Eric Essix’s six-string are slinking around in the backdrop as soon as we press the play button on the new single “Jazz Men” from Shaheed and DJ Supreme, and if you have your volume turned up to the right spot, I think you can hear the chills as they come pouring out of the stereo speakers in real-time.
For a collaborative pair like Shaheed and DJ Supreme, making instrumentally expressive music is nothing new, but incorporating it into a format that the hip-hop masses can handle is still something not many in their scene have been able to do, regardless of their talent level or acquired skill. “Jazz Men” is potentially the most experimental I’ve heard them venture off of the beaten path, but if you liked what you’ve heard from them in 2023 thus far, something tells me you’re going to find this latest piece of material to be a strong continuation of the campaign this crew first set off on a long time ago.
This beat is overwhelming in spots, but I think that it needed to be for Shaheed and DJ Supreme to drive the mood set forth by these gorgeous guitar parts home. There are a lot fewer chills without the placement of the rigid groove in this arrangement, and although the master mix is a little suffocating in a couple of key junctures, this too is important to facilitate an experimental canvas atop which the players can paint us as angular a narrative as they want.
This composition is as much about calling out the posers as it is igniting something personal within the listeners, and if you consider the fact that most rap tracks can only do one or the other successfully, it becomes quite impossible to dismiss the dichotomy of “Jazz Men” as pure luck alone. Normally I would have wanted more out of the bassline, but the shortened presence of low-end tones works well for one major reason; with the charisma of the other components as well-preserved as it is, adding in a virtuosic line beneath the drums would have made everything here cluttered. It takes a lot of ability to pull something as complicated and yet simple as this is together, and I think the depth of the production technique is but one element indicating as much in this single.
I hadn’t heard anything but praise for Shaheed and DJ Supreme in a while, and it’s good to see that they’ve been keeping the momentum rolling with a creative spirit as integral to their accomplishments as their natural musical gifts are. “Jazz Men” sees them hitting it harder than they ever have before, setting a solid standard for other alternative rappers on both sides of the underground and mainstream at the moment, and adventuring away from the mundane once more for what could be one of the more creative additions to their discography they’ve presented to date. Eric Essix makes for an excellent partner here, but there’s no denying who the main stars of this show are.
Penelope Goss
