 |
MH-283 Bigg Jus - Machines That Make Civilization Fun  On Machines That Make Civilizations Fun, Bigg Jus assaults the growing ugliness and inequality of society with a fury and intelligence that are unparalleled in these bleak times of perpetual war and economic fatigue. It makes sense, perhaps, that those coming of age in the diminished hope of the years post-9/11 have gravitated towards the escapist choices of the new generation: beachy chillwave and materialistic rap. Bigg Jus has a longer memory, though. His first project, Company Flow, stood at the top of underground hip-hop during an era when it was actually about something, and he’s still haunted by the events that leveled his home town a decade ago. He doesn’t see the point in rapping about greed or girls, and Machines That Make Civilizations is for those who have been paying attention during the decline and who are hungry for music that aggressively addresses the problems that are right in front of our faces. As cities across America and the world begin to awaken, Bigg Jus offers a soundtrack that speaks truth to power with a profundity that is worthy of the moment. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reviews Summary |
| Juss plants bombs in leftfield and comes up with funk-rotting blooms snapping heads back. - Clash / Hip-hop still has a vital voice to act as the social conscience of the nation. - DJ Mag / Bigg Jus returns in true futuristic fashion speaking on today’s political issues with tomorrow’s sound. - NME / A paranoid glitch-dub masterpiece - Stevie Chick |
| Reviews | |
|
| All hail Kingspitter. With the release of Bigg Jus’ fifth solo album, Machines That Make Civilization Fun, the New York icon is reminding fans why he just might be the most diabolical genius in the lyricist game. The album’s hard-hitting beats laced with Jus’ ju-jitsu-style wordplay amount to nothing less than hip hop’s version of “Shock and Awe.” Admittedly, this critic was forced to look up the lyrics to each track, which is something every Jus listener should do. To do otherwise would be to miss Jus’ tutorial on… well, just about everything. Each verse is infused with references to biochemistry, foreign affairs, astrophysics, technology, secret histories and corporate culture. No hooks here. Jus knowledge. Jus throws every rule about hip-hop music out the window. The instrumentals capture his state of mind, and his lyrics blast through the speakers as if from a bolt-action rifle. Jus aims to cause chaos for the eardrum. The best song on the album is “Black Roses,” in which Jus introduces himself in the very first line as “the atom-splitting novelist.” In just this single song, Jus displays his deft lyrical hand by managing to sprinkle references to the Marquis de Sade, the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs boson, Big Brother, and the Freemasons. No one doubts Jus when he promises that he has “50 ways to Gaddafi ‘em,” describing his music as “Fukushima rap.” On other tracks he takes on corporate greed - which Jus calls the “American Nazi prima facie corporate parasite” - and American foreign policy. The song “Empire Is A Bitch” starts with the lines “Chicago school of economics/ Bernard Lewis”; which other MC do you know starts his first verse with that? He says that the U.S. defense budget hints toward politicians with small manhoods, and calls world peace “a European’s kryptonite.” Jus labels his title track “the mayday song,” in which he takes on U.S. foreign policy again but also touches on the 9/11 conspiracy. The song “Samson Op-Ed” is a severe criticism of the Israeli government, which he calls the “xenophobe overseers of an apartheid state.” Throughout the album you can imagine Jus freestyling on some future battlefield where human resistance fighters are at war with conquering cyborgs. (In fact, if the machines ever do rise up against us, Jus’ album will make for a great soundtrack.) Each composition is Joycean stream-of-consciousness, Orwellian subversiveness and Nabokovian intricacy rolled into one and transplanted into the 21st century. He states his purpose clearly on the album: “I ain’t no idle threat.” And take it from me, Jus is not messing around on Machines That Make Civilization Fun. This is rebel nerd music. Play at your own risk. - Gozamos |
Stream Full Album
CD/Out Of Print