It is always refreshing to the soul when you stumble across crisp new music; it is some sort of awareness that out there, beyond your reach, someone has a wide vision and he/she loves music and would do anything to make it to stardom city. Even though they sound odd, it still refreshes the soul, really; at least if you ask me.
I stumbled across someone called Jay Arc (whatever happened to upcoming artistes with corny monikers). A largely unknown lad who sounded not as corny as his name. When someone labels himself Jay, you are tempted to think that he might be as good with the garb as Jay Z. And skepticism took a front seat when I received this song. Here, he merges talents with extremely talented girl Martha Smallz from AirporTaxi.
The song opens with a faint voice hissing “paradise” and if you have a working hearing system and a good memory, the voice might sound familiar. Martha Smallz croons the beginning of the song with a catchy beat groaning from the background before Jay Arc falls in. I am literally blown away by the sheer combination Jay Arc and Martha flaunts on the song. The last time I heard something fresh and unadulterated like this was when Jennifer Lopez would team up with Fat Joe on that track (Google it, eh). And Paradise, surely, is not as awful as you would expect (upcoming artistes are fond of churning out goddamned awful music for starters).
The producer here feeds the artistes with the best instrumentation he had in his bag and, like Hip Hop lingua would put it, they killed it. Producer Aethan placed his magical hands on this track and he breathed life in it. But credit, a lot of it, should go to Martha Smallz’s part. There is the way she pours magic on the song. There is the way she rescues the song from an abyss had Jay Arc yakked along on his own. And I am not entirely saying Jay Arc didn’t get out of his sleep, he did. Maybe he was awake, even, but Martha, even though she lends backup vocals, rescues the song. I have a problem with Hip Hop artistes in Uganda who, for Chrissakes, laboriously try to sound like their idols. And Jay, slightly, trudged that path. It gets absurdly irritating; the accent and the key he raps in which, to an average ear, wouldn’t make a mark. Nonetheless, he delicately avoids the whole entire mimicry and remains on the same path and takes the song to, wait for this, paradise. It is a good song, really. Jay Arc, you have a bright future if you drop the irritating accent you seem to comfortably rhyme in.
Listen to the song below:
Reviewed by BigEyeUg Team
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