Album Review: Jahaziel – ‘Heads Up’
Artist: Jahaziel
Album: Heads Up
Street Date: 11/19/13
Record Label: XIST Music
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
iPod Pick: My Angel (feat. Sean Simmonds)
Jahaziel, son of Zechariah was a prophet in the bible who declared one of the most often quoted verses of the bible “The battle is not yours, but God’s”. And it’s so interesting that British Hip Hop artist Jahaziel’s music follows closely in the same vein, unashamedly focused, bold and prophetic.
Jahaziel has been around for a while, with a couple of albums and mix-tapes. In fact he’s won BEST GOSPEL at the Mobo awards back in 2008. I love it that Jahaziel’s music has a ting of the rasta/reggae which makes it a bit different from everything we have around now. He doesn’t do the rasta thing all time, in fact some songs (My Angel feat. Sean Simmonds, Round and Round feat. Rebecca Folkes) are unrecognizable to the rasta style.
It’s worth mentioning that the ‘Fall on your knees’ loop from the popular Christmas hymn ‘Oh Holy Night’ on Falling stars is creative. Jahaziel’s new record displays a rare type of sincerity (My Angel) and brokenness (Forevermore) in it’s sound texture and lyrics.
From cheesy and very funny lines like ‘Jesus chose to treat us like Missy and got of our Misdemeanor’ to songs about holding on to God about our only source of help, (Falling Stars, Amen),Heads Up from Jahaziel is a collection of infectious hip hop anthems in the style of Da TRUTH, Lecrae and KB. If you like Hip Hop that is bold and declarative and a lot to chew on even long after the music stops, Jahaziel’s Heads Up will do good.
