MYSK - Music You Should Know - Part 1 - J.I.D

If you enjoy seizing uncontrollably as if the holy spirit has just entered your body, or if you just love shouting things such as "aye" or "let's go" or "Lord Jesus there's a fire", you're going to love this edition of Music You Should Know.

Our first ever MYSK artist is the one and only; J.I.D. Now I'm sure most of you have never heard of this kid but that's understandable, I've only known of his existence for three weeks, but boy let me tell you, he's good at rapping words.

J.I.D is an up and coming rapper from Atlanta (not the Young Thug kind of Atlanta, the good at rapping kind of Atlanta) who recently inked a deal with Dreamville Records. His story is pretty amazing, he was a college dropout living in his car at 18 years old with no musical aspirations. I guess one day he decided hey, I can make things rhyme, so let's try that. Shortly after, he had a deal with J.Cole's record label and went on to release his first studio album on March 10th called "The Never Story".

Two weeks ago I decided to give the album a listen after seeing Dreamville's Instagram account promoting J.I.D. I cut right to the first single he released called "Never" just to see what I was working with. I didn't want to jump right into the album without having a little taste of what this guy was all about.

Let me set the scene for you. I was driving home from work on the Taconic, not a care in the world, just a happy go lucky slave to the man excited to get home and enjoy the night. I plug in my phone, hit play, and when this song's beat dropped I lost control of my body. I almost swerved off the road and over the guardrail but I was eerily calm, like this was just meant to be. I'm almost positive this man's bars had began driving my car, it was magical.

After I regained control of my physical being and got back in my lane I realized this was one of the best songs I'd heard in years. "Never" goes through two different beat patterns in the span of 4 minutes. The first part is hard hitting with a pretty quick rhyme scheme, and the next piece of the song gets even faster. Looking back on it I think the change of tempo is what made me lose control of my limbs. He sounds like Kendrick Lamar with J.Cole's flow, and my goodness whoever made that beat needs an award of some sort.

I realized I was only a few minutes away from home, I guess I had blacked out on the Taconic a bit during the song, I decided to play the last song on his album, this one was called "LAUDER". Not too sure what that word means or how to pronounce it or how it has anything to do with the song, but it sure does knock. As soon as the song started I put on the grossest stank face known to man and at around 500 decibels I screamed "OKAY!!!!". J.I.D had done it again. I pulled into my driveway safely and finished the rest of the album in the confines of my home.

All joking aside I thought the album was great. It was well put together, short and sweet, it didn't seem like he just threw some filler tracks on the record to appease the people. Each song had a meaning and he even showed some versatility with a few slower tracks. Songs like "Hereditary" and "All Bad" are on the calmer side of the spectrum while "D/vision" and "General" are more smack yo mama in the mouth type songs.

Long story short, "The Never Story" is definitely worth a listen and I think he's a perfect addition to the Dreamville family. I'll be looking forward to more music from J.I.D and his Dreamville counterparts as 2017 progresses. Go listen to J.I.D's stuff, go buy/download/stream/whatever, just go support good hip hop!