Here’s a collaboration to conjure with as veteran emcee General Jihad forges a musical alliance with dj/producer DJ Pnutz for new LP General Jihad and Prime Minister Pnutz. Jihad has been active since the late 80s but is best known for his role as one third of Bay Area underground hip-hop outfit Third Sight. DJ Pnutz on the other hand will be more familiar to MB readers as the woman behind LPs such as 16 Psyche. A producer as skilled at making 90s-style boom-bap as she is at material for the breakdance fiends, Pnutz has nevertheless been long overdue for a hook-up with an emcee and who better then than long-time friend Roughneck Jihad?
The beats on this ten-tracker are characterised by Pnutz’ trademark boom while Jihad’s lyrics deliver battle rhymes as well as social commentary. Arguably the track which defines the LP best is ‘take no prisoners’ opener Put Your Hands Up which unfurls from a siren swell of synth and feedback into relentless drums, pulsing bass and fuzz guitar. Over this, Jihad drops a vocal hook exhorting listeners to believe in themselves before firing off a broadside of brag raps. The equally heavyweight Plutocracy on the other hand, finds our man taking on the financial mafia that currently runs the western world and nailing things thus: “In the halls of power an augmented math/ Sell the working class a dream as they take the chaff.” Cuts on the album come from both Symatic and Waxsmith, one (or both) of whom feature heavily on Chocolate (which once again features muted Rage Against The Machine style riffage) but also turn up on the more atmospheric and lyrically autobiographical Chill Day. Look out too for the LP’s biggest scratchfests Something Wicked and closer The General and the Prime Minister with its psych-influenced beat and cuts n bars that big-up – well – the General and the Prime Minister. With quite some justification, it has to be said.
(Out 4 December HERE)