Tarik and Jalin shot this joint over to me yesterday and I wanted to sit with it before posting so I could give it the review it deserves. If you’re not up on Jalin as of yet, he is representing Kentucky and he caught my attention with his rendition of Mos Def and Ski’s Taxi (which is not an easy track to flip given the original MC that was on it). Few and Far Between is a collection of songs that Jalin has recorded here and there over the last year so it’s not meant to be a cohesive project per se.
That being said, you can definitely tell which songs are newer and which ones were recorded earlier on as Jalin’s growth within the course of a year has been pretty tremendous. The mixtape definitely has its highlights like the title track, Few and Far Between, which gives you some insight to Jalin’s conversational flow over a dreamy synth track that builds throughout the song. Another one that stood out is Meet the Patients which is a dope ass concept of J telling vivid stories of each patient as he looks around the emergency room. It’s a great insight on what goes on in many neighborhoods without being preachy.
So is the whole mixtape undeniable dopeness you ask? It isn’t but it is a solid offering worth the download. There are some songs that I feel seem forced. I’m not sure to chalk it up to a period where he was still settling into his current style, but Jalin seems to win when he lays back into mid-tempo tracks with his conversational, vivid rhymes (hear Taxi or Change Your Mind). All in all, I am excited for more Jalin Roze projects to come as I believe he has something to bring to the hip hop table from the kitchen of Kentucky.
