JNatural

With all of the attention to hating in hip-hop (a Google search of songs featuring the term yields a bounty of personalized rebukes of the subject), it’s nice to hear someone rap about love. The debut release from L.A. fashion maven and emcee JNatural, Love Is On Hiatus, begins with a meditation on love in the form of an audio collage of folks defining the word for themselves. There is no consensus, as one would expect. Likewise, this album has the potential to evoke varied responses from listeners, not unlike the way we perceive love.

The first song, the aforementioned “Intro,” as well as the other skits interspersed throughout the album, may no doubt recall the skits on Lauryn Hill’s opus, which I’m sure folks are familiar with here. JNatural’s rapid-fire flow and other stylistic elements place her as an idiosyncratic emcee, although one influenced by others, including Aceyalone, who executive produced the record. On the title track, the latent juxtaposition between the ever-permanence of love and the theme that love has been interrupted, hearken back to the way Ms. Hill identified the push-and-pull of love in all its forms. This tension is undermined by the fact that the relationship woes JNatural alludes to in this otherwise gripping song are not made direct enough for the listener to connect to.

Other highlights include the ska-influenced, guitar tinged “Love If You Believe,” where JNatural advises, “Keep faith and let truth and purity guide you/ Love won’t leave you even when you push it aside.” On “Limber Slinky,” the somber tale of a love affair gone awry, she raps: “You mappin and acting and laughing real crass/But I ain’t telling jokes see I’m just spittin math.” JNatural confounds on the jumpy, horn-inflected “They Want Sex,” when she warns of the provocative uses of sexuality and then states “Cause my sex is the way I sweet talk when I’m flowin/when I rock, rock the boat for all the players and hoes,” a phrase that definitely elicited a head-scratch from this reviewer, given her more uplifting lines and image.

The production by San Diego’s Jeff Wonder is consistent and often compliments JNatural’s melodic intonations. The rub, however, manifests in the artist’s reliance upon the sing-songy, rap/sung hybrid delivery that ultimately sends the message that her vocal expressions are two-fold. Her lyrical themes reflect an enthusiasm for rhyming, and love, although over the course of the album’s sixteen tracks her chosen angles on the subject become redundant and mantra-driven without much direction or specificity.

Love Is On Hiatus is a project that is sure to garner JNatural love in many places, although the Radio Raheem-esque reactions that oscillate between love and dislike would seem natural too.

-Niela Orr