Then What Happened

We Say...

Review by Jayson Greene

Brooklyn MC J-Live is a man out of time. If fate — or record executives — had been kinder, his name would be included among the greats of the late '90s indie-rap renaissance, and his endlessly delayed, oft-overlooked debut The Best Part would have rested comfortably in rap-nerd memory alongside Funcrusher Plus, Internal Affairs and Dr. Octagonecologyst. Instead, the record became trapped in the grinding gears of the industry, enduring a particularly protracted bout of what screenwriters commonly refer to as “development hell.” As a result, it didn't see the light of day until 2001, and as J-Live has learned, the lot of the circa '00s indie-rapper is a lonely one, devoid of even the feeble light and warmth that critical adoration once provided.

But J-Live is also without a doubt a survivor, and on his latest full-length And Then What Happened, he has proudly embraced his throwback status. The record hails from another time and place, for sure; the production is unfailingly warm and gratifyingly analog, tinged delicately with the indie-rap Proust Madeleine of crackling vinyl sounds. But this isn’t another rap-revivalist warm nostalgia bath; the drums land with a bracing crack, and J-Live’s mic skills are still frighteningly sharp.

Even when he’s complaining about his label woes, he complains with an irresistible rhythmic brio: “I’m taking the reins and saying ‘giddyup’/ No more free labor, you better divvy up/ You fuckin' with the wrong one, like Chlamydia/ And I’ma come back, burn your whole committee up.” On “Ole,” he wryly surveys his continued bachelorhood, displaying both a disarming honesty and a natural gift for storytelling: “Damn, I hate wakin up on my couch/ Waste of a bed in this big, empty house/ Wait — sold the house: big, empty apartment,” he begins, before summing up an entire lifestyle in six words — “Popcorn for dinner, Corn Pops for breakfast” and effortlessly switching between humor and pathos. J-Live may have just missed the indie-rap renaissance, but if he can keep knocking out records this strong, he might be able to hang around long enough to make the next one.