The Leak Edition, Vol. 2

Album Review

If Ghostface's More Fish was an album purported to be excess tracks from the Fishscale sessions, when it was, in fact, an album with its own coherent theme, then veteran MC John Robinson's The Leak Edition, Vol. 2 is the second album that J.R. purports to be a "Before Fish" kind of effort. The John Robinson Project is an anticipated collab between J.R. (formerly Lil' Sci of Scienz of Life) and Metal Face DOOM that has yet to surface. The Leak Edition was supposed to be sort of an "in the meantime" release. These types of efforts can quickly spiral down toward haphazard, jilted, trivial hasty waste, but not this joint. This is an album with top-flight production and inspired MC'ing that results in songs that can't possibly be misconstrued as throwaways or stop-plugs. The Madlib-produced "More Music" lays out J.R.'s ideology in the android-chorus: "There's more to hip-hop than just the music," while Lib scratches in Q-Tip's quip, "The movement and all." Yes, this is a well-traveled idea spouted by many underground Gen-X'ers, but J.R. backs up what could be self-righteousness with an earnest, vibrant, well-rounded LP. "Makings of U" is not your usual display of machismo; it's a song that deals with good ol' romance. "J.R. Meets Invizible Handz" isn't the typical coke-deal narrative or conniving Jezebel script; it's the tale of a happenstance meeting between an MC and producer that linked up and got on. DOOM laces his cohort with a mood-setting, acoustic guitar-strummed track for "Expressions" as J.R. gets into some self-reflection, and singer Tiffany Paige's buttery vocals waft over the hook. And amidst the tracks that evoke '90s nostalgia ("The Visionary," "With Voices") and the radio-spot interludes that act as an odd string to tie things together, "Raw Live" features J.R. doing what any self-respecting MC would do: rip the mic, which he does over a synthed-out number with a combative drum track that sounds like something Mike Tyson would train to.