By: Tommy Bryan
“Evolution” is Joyner Lucas’ second studio album, following his debut release of “ADHD” earlier this year.
Joyner brings forth heavy message based content, with each song definitely having its own significant place and value to the album. He also showcases various flows and styles that show that he not only has talent, but versatility as well.
The Massachusetts based rapper gets extremely personal on this album talking about abandonment by family members in his youth, and how he can make light for his own family. He also ties in messages about social injustice with his take on African American women being mistreated in track 4 “Things I’ve seen”.
This album hosts some very big name features such as Rick Ross, Ashanti, The game, Elijah James and Ilya. Some of my favorite tracks were track 5 “ Zim Zimma” track 7 “ Snitch “ and track 15 “ Like a river” (featuring Elijah James). The album also has two released videos up to this date one for track 7 “ Snitch “ and another one for track 9 “ Fall Slowly “ ( featuring Ashanti ). Both music videos were co directed by Ben Proulx and Joyner himself.
Overall I give the album a solid 8.5 out of 10. I believe the versatility will be able to stretch out to various music fans of the rap genre and even some jazz fans as it has multiple songs with heavy jazz based instruments with a hip hop twist. Joyner Lucas “EVOLUTION” gets a gas rating from us!