Jneiro Jarel – Three Piece Puzzle (CD) (2005) (FLAC + 320 kbps)

Smack in the middle of Jneiro Jarel’s debut Three Piece Puzzle, the Brooklyn-born Philly resident and producer-MC opens “Breathin'” crooning full-fledged over a dimly-lit lounge kind of groove with rim-shots and vibe-synthesizer. It could’ve been a track on D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar. In his mid-song monologue, Jarel sums up this genre-hopping album: “To me, in this modern-day music, everybody’s doing the same thing. It’s like, claustrophobic… I need some space to breathe, man.” Leading up to “Breathin'” are hip-hop odes to jazz, like the hard-bop horn-riffed “Big Bounce Theory,” the drum’n’bass/electronica of “Crashing Comets” (where every instrument, especially the slow-motion bass, seems to be on barbiturates), the Slum Village-ish “It’s Like Fire Yo!!,” and “N.A.S.A.” — songs with simple lyrics served as a condiment for the Jarel-produced head-nodders. With few guest appearances and all production credits his, this album’s credit lies in the fact that Jarel doesn’t request this “space to breathe” and then makes a self-indulgent album created in a vacuum. The first segment of “Lock Down” features Jarel recalling his teen years engulfed in hip-hop, soul, and jazz, and how they influenced him as an artist. Still, there’s no mistaking Jarel for a lemming, though there are discernible likenesses to some of his hip-hop brethren, such as J Dilla and Count Bass D. Many of his songs are quite foreign territory for most hip-hoppers. Which, ultimately, is the point: confining Jarel to the normal hip-hop box is unfair. “Sun Walkers” is an Afro-Cuban groove with a vibraphone solo and chorus-refrain reminiscent of a Roy Ayers tune, and “Black Cinderella” is about as close as hip-hop has gotten to David Bowie. And while his lyrics can wander toward empty and sound closer to pedestrian freestyles than the kind of well-crafted rhymes that his impeccable production really deserves, it’s the musical diversity and genre-bending/reinventing that makes Three Piece Puzzle fresh and one of the best hip-hop-based debuts of its time.

Tracklist:

01. Connect Wit It
02. Big Bounce Theory
03. Crashing Comets
04. Do Yo Thang
05. Jneirieireooo!!!!! (A DJ Kiva Interlude)
06. Get Yuh Own
07. It’s Like Fire Yo!!
08. N.A.S.A. (feat. Dr. Who Dat? & Rocque Wun)
09. Breathin’ (feat. Rocque Wun)
10. Sun Walkers (feat. Mel Owens)
11. Black Cinderella (feat. Dr. Who Dat? & Rocque Wun)
12. Soul Starr
13. Doinis!! (feat. Dr. Who Dat?)
14. Let’s Get Wit It (feat. Jawwaad, Aahtue & Nahuma Holiday)
15. Lock Down
16. Big Bounce Theory Pt. 2 (feat. Vinia Mojica)
17. Untitled (Bonus Track)

Download:

FLAC – Wayshare

320 kbps – Wayshare