Jaren Jackson Jr Dropped A Terrible Rap Album
I am a massive rap fan. I also love the NBA. Naturally, when I hear a player dropped a song or album, I will give it a listen. This time around, Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr was the player that decided to drop an album. Yesterday, Jackson dropped From Now On under his rap name Trip J. With that being said, he should have kept this one in the vault.
Let me be clear. I wanted to enjoy this album. I have absolutely no reason not to. But this is just not it. When I say this album is not good, it is not good for NBA rap. I am not comparing Jackson to the best rappers in the world. That would be unfair. Rather, other NBA players are far better in the booth. In my opinion, Damian Lillard, Iman Shumpert (I know Shumpert is retired but that man can rap), and Miles Bridges are all far better. Aaron Gordon, Lou Williams, and Marvin Bagley clear him pretty comfortably too. If that is not enough, I have seen minute-long videos on Twitter of Anthony Edwards and Cade Cunningham rapping. They are probably better, and neither has released a song. If you want me to keep naming names, I can, but I think you get my point.
My main quarry with this album is that Jackson tries to do a melodic style while using auto-tune. I get it, that is a trending style of rap, and some guys can pull it off. As of right now, Jackson is not one of those guys. If you have not heard Jackson speak, he has a fairly deep voice. This does not exactly pair well with this style of rap. I think a more traditional style of hard-lyrical rap may pair better with his voice. In fairness, he did that on aim different and that was the best song on the album.
As far as lyrics go, he does not help himself in that area either. I am not going to say that the lyrics are bad, but nothing really stood out. Over 12 songs, he never really dropped a noteworthy bar. The only time I reacted to a bar was when he mentioned other NBA players, which by my count he did three times… two of which were awkwardly placed Golden State Warriors bars. I’ll drop them below.
“The crowd drunk as hell, they booing Iggy but it’s Draymond.”
Trip J in “aim different”
“I don’t wanna fight, I can’t even take it anymore. Plus I got a game tomorrow, Steph be running all around. Why you just be running games? I don’t even know. “
Trip J in “160 blocks”
The other NBA bar was about his teammate Desmond Bane. I’ll give him that one, that was cool.
“Desmond Bane with the dot ’cause I aim different.”
Trip J in “aim different”
The last critique I have is that some of the features were not great. Most notably, Daicia was featured on two songs and she did nothing good. In her time on the mic, she dropped bars about SpongeBob, rubber ducks, Tonka Trucks, JG Wentworth, Lion King, Danny Phantom, and more. On a positive note, Jackson out rapped her on both songs.
Despite calling this album terrible, I do have nice things to say. First off, I respect Jackson for taking a risk and dropping this style of rap. A lot of NBA rappers make similar music. It takes guts to step away from the path other guys have paved. It just did not work out on this album. Plus, I think Jackson actually has potential as a rapper. I know, that sounds strange after I just buried him throughout this entire post. Most importantly, he is new to making music. Prior to 2022, he had zero songs released. If he hones in and adjusts his style, he could fly up the NBA rap power rankings.
If you are dying to listen to the album, the best songs were aim different and 1s. Neither song is a must-listen, but if you are trying to make a case for Jackson being a quality rapper, these should be the songs you look to. On top of that, the production is pretty good. If you are the type of person that doesn’t care about much other than production, you may enjoy the album.
