Median – Median’s Relief

    Every artist, from country to heavy metal to Hip Hop worries
    about the sophomore jinx. Some start strong and fall flat, while others knock
    the all important second offering out of the box. Median falls in the latter category. The Justus League representative is back with Median’s Relief, an honest and soulful 16 track opus on life and
    love, which picks up where the first EP, Median’s
    Path to Relief
    left off.

    With the game currently dominated by thuggin and blinged out
    braggadocio sixteens, Median raps
    for the common man. This is “I just got
    off my 9 to 5 and need to unwind”
    type of Hip Hop. But make no mistake
    about it–Median can spit. Rize finds him taking listeners through
    the story of his life, dispelling the myth that sports and drugs are the only
    way out of a bad situation. “Landlord say
    he gotta raise the rent again/ now we raise the issue how we gonna raise the
    dividends/ since I was raised a little different/ there’s gotta be a way to
    rise outside of what was given here/ jumpshot couldn’t score scholarship to get
    em there/ plus I couldn’t pump rocks on my block cause junkies wasn’t livin
    there/ with eyebrows raised, the lights start to flicker/ I’m the bomb with
    rhyming I could rhyme to niggas,”
    he raps over the horn heavy, mid tempo Khrysis beat.

    Production wise, Median doesn’t stray far from the Justus League fam, with in house
    producers 9th Wonder and the aforementioned Khrysis holding down the
    majority of board duty. Rounding out this family affair is Nicolay of Foreign
    Exchange
    fame, supplying the sounds for three of the album’s tracks. Relief is truly a family effort, and
    Median is at his best over the soulful, laid back compositions.

    The strength in relief is its versatility–creative
    versatility that is. If you’re expecting the song for everybody formula (club
    song, girl song, hood song) that’s become popular today, keep searching. Median
    takes chances with song concepts and subject matter, schooling rappers on the
    art of the mastering the English language. Subjects include the simile (Simile), the metaphor (Personified), and the art of story
    telling (the Joe Scudda and Chaundon assisted Choices). Later on the disc, he switches gears, assuming the role
    of history teacher on Power Shift. He
    calls for a change in the state of Hip Hop, reminding all of us that without
    the emcees, the game comes to a halt with lines like, “Too many humans do the same dang iddish/…getting paid until the next
    craze hits/ Who’s pulling the strings/replacing all the kids in here/bruh, is
    it the puppet or the puppeteer/I think it’s power to the people with the
    numbers here/without the players the coaches couldn’t function in this…/Hip
    Hop kids invented all these ideas…/We need a catalyst to spark another power
    shift.”
    Class is in session, grab your books!

    In fact, it’s the element of story telling that allows Median to shine. He takes up the task
    of adding another chapter to 2Pac’s Brenda’s Got a Baby. The result is Brenda’s Baby, a believable tale of what
    would’ve likely happened to the daughter Pac’s
    character originally dropped in a garbage can. Median finds Brenda’s
    seed running drugs across state lines before a tragedy brings her to a life
    changing epiphany. It’s a story fitting for an evening news feature. Pac would be proud.

    Median manages to
    avoid the sophomore jinx by remaining true to himself. Longtime fans will not
    be disappointed and listeners tired of the mainstream will find refuge in Relief. If Hip Hop is dying, Median’s got the surgical tools to save
    it–and he’s not afraid to operate.

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