DJ Jewels is a 48 year old DJ, producer & rapper from Detroit, Michigan known for his work with some of the Motor City’s most notable hip hop acts from D12 to his Grindset cohort Fatt Father of the world famous Fat Killahz or even Obie Trice. He released his solo debut Another Conversation Peace a quarter of a century ago followed by Peep Game, Priceless & Take It or Leave It. My introduction to him though was the summer of 2010 when he produced the posthumous Proof mixtape Time a Tell recorded in 24 hours sometime before his murder, which has some of my favorite solo material from the mayor. The Best is Yet to Come has to be my favorite album from Jewels & was excited to hear his 6th LP following the 5 EPs The Movement, Who’z Dean Jones?, Fastlife Fame, Aniel & Pick 6.
The intro by Finale starts in the form of this 96 second horn-laced opener giving the finger to their competition mainstream or underground whereas “Document” by Guilty Simpson works in an opera sample matched with kicks & snares talking about fools betting that their music wouldn’t be hittin’ no more. “No Hook” by Big Tone & Denmark Vessey has a funkier vibe to the beat murdering it without the need of a chorus & after the “DJ Stripalude” interlude, “Is On Me” by DJ Truth has to be one of the weaker cuts & that’s because of the heavy auto-tuned vocals, the trap instrumental is fine.
“Drought Season 3” by Big Herk & the late MC Breed embraces the Bay Area-inspired take that the Detroit trap scene has become known for in recent memory boasting the fact they stay getting that shit prior to “Grind Season” by Grindset sampling “I’m Afraid the Masquerade’s Over” by David Porter talking about never making projects to skim through, as how it should be. “Hey Mr. DJ” by Kashia Adams goes R&B singing over a funky instrumental that she wants to dance leading into the trap-inflicted “Gettin’ Off” by Dean Jones & Tae-O only knowing to run shit up.
Interestingly on “Ur tha Won”, we have DJ Jewels jumping over one of his beasts to give a shot at MCing for a little over a minute & holding his own weight maintaining the trap sounds from the previous joint turning the energy up getting romantic while “Meet Mr. Wonderful” featuring Marv Won finds the 2 talking about progressively improving every single day over this jazzy soulful hybrid. “Still Love er” by Big Tone & Loe Louis starts the other half of Undr Dawg with a fresh dedication to hip hop culture & the sequel “1st Love (Still Love er 2)” much like “Ur tha Won” is another Jewels solo joint instead it has a boom bap vibe to it.
“Pretty Girl Anthem” by DJ Truth happens to be an average pop rap/trap crossover dedicated to all the pretty women that be out here in Detroit just before “Thankful4U2” by Jill Govan goes off with another R&B joint that’s as catchy as “Hey Mr. DJ” from earlier. “Grow More” by Big Tone goes for a groovier approach instrumentally suggesting to watch what you feed your conscious mind & tell him the haters vamonos, but then “Cheat Code” is a 3rd solo cut from DJ Jewels chops up a soul sample throwing 808s in the fold repping Grindset.
Picking up from the previous track perfectly, Grindset returns to the boom bap on “How Dat Sound?” talking about driving off on people who don’t value their hard work while “Heat tha Summer Up” happens to be the final Jewels solo cut jumping over another Detroit trap beat similarly to “Cheat Code” & “Ur tha Won” heading to the top without runner-ups. “Go Mode 2” by Grindset & Oba Rowland decently remixes to the same song off Grindset’s eponymous debut while “Live 4 Me” by Alius Pnukkl discusses needing time to get through things.
Almost all of the EPs that DJ Jewels has been putting out in the last 5 years other than Who’z Dean Jones? if you think about it have been finding him venturing out into house music before even Beyoncé & even Drake put out Renaissance or Honestly, Nevermind. As for UNDR DAWG, I love it as much as The Best is Yet to Come. His production here could be his most versatile pinging between boom bap, Detroit trap & R&B leaving most of the performances to a list of established & up-&-coming local artists aside from the 4 solo tracks.
Score: 8/10