Onetime Monsta Island Czars emcee Junclassic [click to read] and the producer- and sometimes rhyme concierge is 18sho are truly a dynamic duo, playing an equally creative role to the madness that is Overqualified. The song, “I Wasn’t Ready” seems to manifest Junclassic‘s lyrical credo. In the midst of sampled handclaps and audience noises, rhyming mistakes, flubs and faux pas are prevalent on the menu, but yet Junclassic still keeps rhyming and going like the Duracell Bunny. Whether ready or not, Junclassic is an enigma. His delivery is coddled with anger while he takes any and every opportunity to be silly. He has a rapid-fire delivery that is slow flowing with clarity ala EPMD, but at times his breathing and pacing sounds as if it’s languishing. The simplest way to describe the man from Queens, New York is different yet captivating.
This is an emcee composite of KRS-One [click to read], with an equal blending of Trugoy and then in the next minute he’s Zev Love X. The combination is a very strange mixture that manages to work none-the-less and comes off as a positive. Take for instance the song, “Squeaky Clean,” a slower paced flow than Zev Love X utilized, but the lyrical flow and the delivery along with the word play has the feel of a KMD album cut. The interactive ambiance and the simplistic yet funky production on large parts of this album are like a slower rhyming updated version of KMD‘s first album, Mr. Hood.
Now on the De La Soul tip comes two tracks, first up, “God is Listening” which is a raw beat consisting of high hats, a kick and a snare. Junclassic fortified with a smooth rapid- fire delivery channels touches of Posdnuos and Trugoy‘s style of structured rhymes, phrasing and cadence. Next up, “MySpace Sensitivity,” a happy, fun, very creative track that could work as a post-modern update of “Jenifa Taught Me.” It’s a grand tour and lyrical exploration of the honey’s, the friend requests, the beats and the profiles one experiences while surfing MySpace.
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Finally, possessed by Tha Teacher, “Duck Sauce” finds Junclassic over a simplistic yet funky beat, blessed with chimes lyrically reminiscing about stages of a kid becoming a man. It’s his voracious delivery, lyrics, pronunciation and phrasing that make the spirit of this song akin to KRS-One‘s flow from his classic “Poetry.”
On the production tip, I8sho tends to keep it minimal like an early GZA [click to read] track. He hit’s you with piano keys, backward scratches, reversed samples, sound effects, chimes, bells and vocal snippets and samples strategically placed. I8sho also grabs the mic with skill and lyrically gets silly on songs like, “The Heineken” and the creatively word play stuffed, “Bee Collector.”
There are many strong points on this offering like, “eFromBrooklyn” which echoes Junclassic’s encounter with a strange unscrupulous character from Brooklyn who has a story of contemplation to tell, but there also bizarre songs like, “Kirk Franklin” whose funny title has no relevance or connection to the rhymes said. Either way it’s more than academic when it comes to the album, Overqualified. Junclassic‘s skills and experience more than qualify when it comes to creatively getting the job done.
