Jay NiCE & Farma Beats - POMPEii! [2019]

Hip-Hop is my favorite genre for dozens of reasons: ease of access, hundreds of sub-genres, regional diversity, and the list goes on. Whenever I go listen around and find something new, the feeling of finding something so crazy good that I had *never* heard about in any capacity AND opens up a whole new scene for me to dig into… there’s just nothing like it. The scene in question here is Delaware, the artist in question is Jay NiCE, and the project in question is POMPEii!, which is a collaborative project with London producer Farma Beats. Like I said, I had never heard of this guy at all, and half of the features on here are local Delawareans, so my only points of reference here were Farma Beats (who had done a project with Tha God Fahim), and Fahim himself being on here (along with Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks of course, who has linked with Fahim a few times anyways). But once I got into the album, I found that the instrumentals, stellar features selection, compelling motif of the Pompeii and Vesuvius disaster, and the lyrical genius of Jay NiCE himself all contribute to make POMPEii! one of the most compelling projects that I’ve heard this year.

I’m a sucker for Roman/Greek aesthetic; it’s probably a big reason why this album resonates so hard for me, like Ka’s album Orpheus Vs. the Sirens did last year.

Alright, so who the fuck is Jay NiCE? When hearing him on the mic, I’m reminded of Chuck Strangers (from Pro Era) and Illa Ghee in his vocal quality, with a deep and monotone delivery giving a coldness to his voice. It can be confusing to hear someone who sounds relatively unattached emotionally rap in such a colorful and at times politically poignant way. His rhyme schemes are very much in line with someone like Conway the Machine, with good setups and excellent punchlines spit in an unrelenting flow; sometimes the wordplay even reaches the profoundness of someone like Your Old Droog or El-P, causing you to do a double-take like “did this dude just say this shit??” But I think the thing that really sets Jay NiCE apart from all of the people I’ve mentioned is his intelligent and well-spoken ways he rhymes about the problems of his community, and the black community at large. On Doomsday Clock, he raps “I’m screaming fuck all culture vultures who prey on kids / Say a prayer for smokers wishing they could quit”, and on 2,000 Years Buried he has an intense critique of the prison system and for government at large, going as far as saying he trusts Alex Jones more than he trusts the suits up in Washington. Blk Juice is really the best moment on the album where Jay NiCE explains what he thinks, saying that he’s rapping for people to open their eyes and see the injustices going on around them in black culture, not just in the record industry but also the country at large. But he still places paramount importance to his skills as a rapper, stating that he’s a “fly talker, but I’m Duke Ellington with this rhyming shit; Don’t Mean a Thing if the lines don’t hit”. He hits true in every aspect of rapping, from his delivery to his wordplay to his topical nature, and I see the dude getting much bigger if he continues putting in this level of effort.

Farma Beats creates an amazingly varied and well-structured album instrumentally, and sticks to the subject matter of POMPEii! in his own way. It’s almost as if he’s following the series of events with the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius, with the first two tracks being a sort of arrogant leadup, the middle two tracks being the dark eruption, and the final three being, rather than a traumatic aftermath, a hopeful look to the future. Earl Simmons sounds like some old school Wu-Tang with its chamberish pianos and rugged drums, while Apollo, Vulcan & Mars has more of an 80’s mafia-movie soundtrack feel with the keyboard hits, licks of electric guitar, and it’s use of these tribal drum sounds. Both tracks are the most 90’s rap of the bunch, and demonstrate a lead-up to the eruption in which the gods were upset with the people of Pompeii. Vantablack Magma and Doomsday Clock are the slow, grinding, sinister climax of the album, with heavy use of hard-played piano notes and basslines creating a sense of dread that translates into a flowing volcanic eruption. But after the eruption, Perfect Herculean rescues you with it’s inviting and steady beat along with it’s wispy woodwinds notes and sparse strings; it’s kind of like flying through the sky, watching back at the devastation that just occurred. The last two tracks are the two best tracks in my opinion, and it starts with 2,000 Years Buried. The strings on this track are amazingly vintage, sounding like they came out of a film from the 30’s; this nostalgia gets slightly overworked since the sample is unchanged for almost 5 minutes, but it’s so beautiful and piercing as a hip-hop instrumental that I overlook the relative simplicity. After starting with a hilarious story about a monkey stepping on a lions toes, Blk Juice is a spiritual and meditative experience, with layered vocal harmonies, faint bassline, and acoustic guitar serving as the true look forward, cementing the entire saga of the tragedy of Pompeii as something that can be paralleled to today; as a black tragedy that is ongoing in the world.

It’s straight up like movie credits, complete with an R-rating. For such a cinematic and themed experience, this is like a cherry on top.

There are features on every track besides the instrumental intro, and every single one of them are fantastic. Delaware is put on the map *heavily* on the project, starting with the first feature Left Lane Didon. Left Lane has worked a lot with Jay in the past, and the two as a duo really complement each other with Jay’s gruff and Didon’s nasal and slurred delivery. He reminds me of Havoc back in the day, and I suppose you could compare Jay to Prodigy too. Ru$h is another DE native, and his style is a raspy, Hus Kingpin-like delivery and sharp wordplay. His appearance on Perfect Herculean works well with the beat, and his lyrics are impressive as hell. Chris Skillz is soooo cool with the way he changes up his cadence and rhyme scheme on a dime, and some of his turns of phrase are ill as hell; this guy is probably my favorite discovery on this album, as he really sounds straight out of the 90’s. Kuji Young is the last feature on the album on Blk Juice, and to be honest I’m not sure which part is his? I think, being a singer, he’s the ethereal vocals that pervade the whole track, which if true is impressive, but I can’t confirm that (and I’m not sure where else he would be). Besides these Delaware dudes, you have some big names. Rome Streetz is climbing to the top of the underground pile this year, appearing and many albums recently with fire ass verses; his appearance on Earl Simmons is appropriately grimey as fuuuuck. Recognize Ali kills his appearance on Vantablackmagma, with a supremely gutter verse. Tha God Fahim and Vinnie Paz both appear on Apollo, Vulcan and Mars, and both of them do their thing to the utmost; Vinnie in particular is a highpoint with his trademark cutthroat wordplay.

During the course of looking up details of this artist and this album, I have been exposed to the incredible Delaware scene, and for that I must thank POMPEii! immensely. Jay NiCE is a fantastically skilled lyricist, and if he keeps scoring collaborations with producers of the caliber of Farma Beats, I think he can go a long way in the underground scene. If you are looking for someone to sink your teeth into, with deep and well-written bars and a gang of friends and collaborators who work the same way, then this album is 100% for you. Shit, if he keeps it up with this much heat, Dover might become the new Pompeii, because this dude flows like a fuckin volcano.

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