Steve 'Flash' JuonHas a genre peaked when it’s parodied on Saturday Night Live?
That slap at the end feels way too real. It channels all of my frustration with an endless ocean of emo rap drowning my ears. What did the five fingers say to the face? NO MORE, BITCH. Despite those misgivings I still try to give new artists a fair chance, and in being entirely fair I didn’t hate “Ufeelme1” by sewerperson & JabariOnTheBeat. I didn’t hate it on the first listen, and I even went back for seconds. Right away sewerperson has something going for him simply by not letting his vocals be modulated until they become parody. They are still AutoTuned, but Jabari takes a light hand to his protege instead of a heavy one. The next thing that “Ufeelme1” has going for it is just how clean Jabari’s tracks are. He even surprised me on “VIP” by changing up the music and tempo mid-track, making it sound like two different songs that were both good.
Color me impressed. Listening to “take2” convinces me these guys have a chance. The layered sampling and the smooth R&B sound could slip into drive-time radio on any FM station around the country. There’s nothing particularly special about what sewerperson is saying lyrically, and his crooning veers awfully close to “YOU NEVER LOVED ME MOM” territory, but it still works.
“I do not do third wheels
like I don’t even ride no bike
Take the time you need to navigate
cause I’ll be herŠµ to love you anyway”
They even pulled off a little Southern style “chop & screw” at the end of an “Interlude” and I ain’t mad at it one bit.
Basically I went into “Ufeelme1” knowing it was emo rap fully prepared to rage about the state of rap in 2024, and the hate promptly went flaccid. I’m not saying the lyrics are amazing (they’re not) but they are at least presented in a way that’s listenable. I’m not saying the beats are life changing (not at all) but they’re far superior to the majority of self-released music out there. I don’t know what the future of either Jabari or sewer are after this album, but I’ll be open-minded about what comes next if they can keep performing at this level.