jj – Kills (2011) [Sincerely Yours] // Grade: B

Guess we all forgot what the definition of “mixtape” was for a while there huh? Rappers especially started packing their mixtapes with enough freshly produced tracks as to beg the question “what exactly makes this not an album?” Well, jj don’t roll like that. With Kills, their first release since their less than well received sophomore LP No.3, jj delivers a classic mixtape: new (sometimes borrowed) lyrics straight over other artist’s songs. Smart move, jj.

Kills feels like an inevitability in the jj catalogue. The band has been flirting with this style since Ecstasy, their Lil’ Wayne flip that was the first jj song most people heard. jj, who were riding a critical high after their debut, No.2, received quite a lashing for it’s follow up. I actually liked the album fine, but jj, whose popularity before seemed to be driven in equal parts by mystique and cool as musical prowess, was left in an awkward position. Basically (even if it wasn’t warranted), they got called out. So Kills could be looked at as some sort of retreat back to a trope they know they can knock out of the park, but it sure doesn’t sound like any sort of white flag.

Kills opens with Elin Kastlander’s angelic and waifish coo flowing over Still D.R.E., one of the most recognizable beats ever probably. A bold move, yet it’s to jj’s credit that it somehow, in this setting, feels like it’s theirs. Same goes for their appropriation of the ubiquitous Empire State of Mind, here sporting the meta-jokey title New Work. They play a lot of this “yeah, we’re stealing but not really, but kind of” game on Kills, but I sort of enjoyed their bold acknowledgement of it. Especially on Die Tonight, when they sing Robyn lyrics over Taio Cruz’s Dynamite with such conviction you almost believe they wrote both. Kills is like jj: fun, weird, hard to pin down, and yet strangely familiar.

Download jj’s Kills Mixtape (Click Here)

- Whole Milk