Rome Streetz & The Artivist - Joyeria [2019]

What is the difference between being a student of the old school and being stuck in the past? It’s a debate that’s been retread for decades now, with some convinced that the only way to keep hip-hop alive is to channel the rawness of it’s earliest days, while others see the benefit of embracing the new waves and combining the old-head resistance with the younger bars. I’m very much in the camp of the latter, with the balance between new ideas and Golden Age heart key to making sure the culture remains fruitful going forward, and think that people who hold on to those older sounds in their entirety risk remaining dusty and irrelevant. But sometimes I’m wrong. Sometimes, there is an emcee that can wield the fire and flows of the 90’s, and is so whole-heartedly committed to its dustiness that it sounds like it was recorded twenty-five years ago. It takes a dedication to a certain recording equipment, an understanding of the way material was produced all that time ago, and an emcee that is so devoted to the notion of “bars bars bars” that the line between now and then is seamless. Rome Streetz is that rapper, The Artivist is the producer with his finger of the pulse of 1994, and Joyeria is the project that the two mad geniuses have created that show that mindless Golden Age fetishism isn’t always tacky: it can truly be a throwback to a grittier and rawer time in the genre’s history.

This is one of the most unsettling images I’ve ever seen. Like, how did he get that thing in there?……. maybe I’m thinking too deep into this shit

Rome Streetz, coming from an unknown (to me) borough of New York City, is a supremely talented emcee in almost every aspect of his craft. With the bar-structuring power of rappers like Nas, AZ, and Kool G Rap, Rome’s rhyme game is one of the strongest I’ve seen in a very long time. His writing is detailed and intricate in the way he constructs not only immaculately rhymed bars, but immaculately flowing bars that seem to roll off the tongue effortlessly. He can stick to a scheme for entire tracks, never losing the ferocity and speed of his delivery, all with wordplay that rivals some of the great minds of the genre. He can inject flaunting braggadocio, brash political statements, detailed stories, and technical lyrical flourishes completely in stride, leaving you totally engaged with what he’s saying after every bar. He can assault you with rhyme schemes like on the river of words he unloads on Snow Beach, or the immediate launching of solid schemes on the second track Run Da Jewels. His lyrical poignancy is shown on track like Alpha Bay, with the simply stated “The cracka get probation / the n**** get hit with the book for powder” are understandings that he just throws out there off the cuff, betraying a deeper wisdom on the way the streets work. But he can still experiment a bit with the way he spits, like on Formation Of Mental Objects, where his bars “My Muslim homies told me ‘God pull up to the mass kid’ / I declined told em ‘pray for me’ / he said ‘your mind is corrupted by weed smoke, pussy and yay money’ / he ain’t lyin’’ are delivered in such a reckless and nonchalant way that it feels so cold amongst his other tight-knit material.

Rome’s storytelling chops really come through on the track Heat Economics, on which he brings in Rochester’s Rigz and Brooklyn’s Chyna Streetz to bring the tale to life. The basic premise of the track is this: Rome is an arm dealer who sells weapons to Rigz, who uses his new purchases to spray up a rat in the streets. But Rigz doesn’t just hit his target, he mistakenly also shoots the man’s young son. Chyna Streetz runs up to see the aftermath of what Rigz has just done to her man and her son, watching both die in front of her. Every part of this story is littered with some sort of tragedy: Rome is reflecting on how much damage he’s caused in the streets by selling his product to young men who probably aren’t thinking about the consequences of their actions, and even seeks to get out of the game because of the damage it’s doing to his conscience. Rigz is that reckless youth, who is purely looking to do damage to those who have wronged him in this misguided sense of street code, not knowing that not only is the man who he’s gunning for a married man with children, but also that he’s not alone, and that his kid becomes an unfortunate casualty to his anger. It reminds me a lot of what Nas said way back then on One Love, with one of the jewels he dropped on shorty being “mistakes happen, so take heed never bust up in the crowd / catch him solo, make the right man bleed.” Chyna is watching the whole thing go down, having to watch not only her firstborn die in front of her, but slowly watch her man die; when it’s revealed that she’s pregnant with his second child, it really puts into perspective how entirely petty and useless the massacre was, and how many people besides the target Rigz’s heedless act has destroyed. To quote Nas again, “tough luck when n****s is struck, families fucked up / coulda punched a man but didn’t look when you bucked up”. A powerful statement on the web of damage a single act of violence can create.

Although he’s but one of three creative heads on Big Turks, their debut album from earlier this year (and my #2 AOTY of 2019) is another stellar example of Rome’s rapping abilities.

The people he brings along with him are all talented emcees, but there aren’t that many of them (which isn’t really a problem given that Rome Streetz is such a satisfying emcee on his own). We’ve already talked about Rigz and Chyna Streetz on Heat Economics, with their stellar features showcasing their personal and technical approaches to the craft. Chyna, however, is on two tracks on here, and I’ve got to say, in my only negative statement on Joyeria, her appearance on N.A.S. is a bit TOO much for me. It may have more to do with the mixing job on this track, but she is entirely too loud on this track, and her hook becomes more grating on each listen and repetition; it was jarring going from her involved and deeply moving performance on Heat Economics to this. The other two features on here are both on the track Formation of Mental Objects: Massachusetts grime-lord Estee Nack and Hempstead’s own SmooVth. The Nack Man has one of my favorite unique flows in the game right now, and hits it out of the park here with his aggressive chug of words, while also demonstrating that he has one of the best adlibs in the game right now (one of his adlib is literally him saying “adlib”, what a fucking legend). SmooVth has the most esoteric appearance on the record, with his measured and no-bullshit flow almost sounding like some mafioso slam poetry; I love some of the Nas lyrics he incorporates into his verse, further lending the record that 1994 feel.

Large Professor (right) and… you know what if you don’t know the man on the left just leave this page… are the two men that I think are drawn from the most on Joyeria, an the results are like if the two had done it themselves.

The Artivist is the mastermind behind the boards on Joyeria, with his spread of beats here demonstrating a deep and profound understanding of not only the sounds and feel of mid-90’s hip-hop, but an understanding of many of the recording and sampling techniques that made that era in the genre so unique. Tracks like Die4U, with it’s pitched-up soul sample and banging bassline, and Alpha Bay, starting with a chime-clouded and murky boom-bap grind and ending with frivolous reversed synths and crisp snares, both sound like they could have come from Large Professor on Illmatic. Heat Economics is similar in free-spiritedness; while the subject matter is obviously horrifying, the beat is bittersweet with it’s looped strings and grand piano, again reminding me of Illmatic, maybe more of a DJ Premier beat without scratching. A lot of things here sound like soundtrack work, like Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in they way they can amplify “scene” in Rome Streetz’ Mafiaso story. Vagabonds Don’t Die is striking with the angry strings and dusty drum kit, sounding like a climactic gun battle being looped over and over again. Snow Beach too sounds like a scene from a movie, specifically the scene from Clockers that sampled at the beginning of the record on the Intro; it too has nostalgic clarinets and evokes a lot of the same feelings of borderline shame for the drug game. If there were a third clear influence here it would be the RZA, specifically the work he did on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and Ghostface Killah’s Ironman. The opener to the record, Run Da Jewelz, with it’s brash horns and suave strings are kind of like an opening credits scene in an old blaxploitation film, reminding me of the opener Iron Maiden off of Ironman. Formation of Mental Objects, my favorite instrumental here by far, is so thick and luscious with the soulful key flourishes, Spanish guitars, light drum brushes, and fantastically paced bass groove; all of these parts come together in an bizarre harmony that’s one part church service and one part “eating spaghetti with the Don”. Joyeria is played off stage with a similarly “old Italia”-like beat, with those plucky guitars coming back to be a front of a joyous piano melody; it’s like if Michael Corleone was able to retire in the Italian countryside, this is the ending credits to that movie.

So I guess the answer to my initial question is a bit more nuanced then one might think. 90’s reverence can be a powerful tool, but I think those who live and breathe this era are the ones who are destined to achieve greatness. There are those who moan about the bygone days of ’94, but then there are those, like Rome Streetz and The Artivist, that say “fuck that shit, ’94 is still NOW”. I see 2020 as being the year when Rome Streetz is given credit for being the rapping prodigy that he is, and hope that his beat and collaborator selection continues to be fruitful. The same can be said for The Artivist; I hadn’t heard of this dude before Joyeria, but you can bet I won’t sleep from here on out. The 90’s is only as alive as those who contribute, positively, to keep it alive, and the humility and unmitigated skill shown by Rome and The Artivist by channeling it’s energy so… effortlessly like they have here on Joyeria is a musical feat. Like the RZA said, this is hip-hop in its purest form.

YouTube/Bandcamp