RetCon #2

JaeTwo3 - Product of my Age

Here’s the second issue of RetCon and I’m here to talk about another one of my brothers, JaeTwo3. I remember the first time I heard that Jae rapped from my guy Zinni. I didn’t really know what to expect because he was a young bull so I thought “yeah everyone raps nowadays and they mostly on the shit I don‘t like.” Zinni highly recommended that I give him a chance and sent me to SoundCloud to listen to ‘Skipping Stones’ a mixtape I highly recommend. I was extremely impressed by my guy’s flow and his “this is me” approach to music. He doesn’t abandon that approach on his most recent release ‘Product of my Age’.

I’m just gonna get right into thick of this album. ‘Running Water’ is one of my favorite songs on the project because the more I listen to it I realize how much potential Jacobs Ladder has. Jae got up on the track and told us about an old relationship he had and one of my favorite moments (that won’t spoil happens) but whenever someone is in my car they say the same thing every time. But something tells me Jacobs hasn’t been doing this for too long but I can hear the effort in his verse. It sounds like he‘s working on it being as good as he can get it to be. I probably shouldn’t like it as much as I do but something about their chemistry keeps me going back for more of that record.

I want to tell y’all the very first thing I said when I first heard ‘Lost Wings’. I sat in my car on lunch and heard this dude Jordan sing “I just wanna fly away...” I looked up and said “this nigga is singing now!!!” And died laughing. Not because it’s bad vocals but because I hate that nigga. I have sat in sessions with this dude where he would freestyle off the top and just be better than most people I know. For him to have the confidence to step into doing his own singing on a hook, it’s a scary thought if he perfects that skill enough to be even more dynamic as an artist.

If you’ve heard DraDay3 (available right here on induberantlymedia.com/tunes) you may have heard ‘Sundown’ before. I typically don’t care for duplicate songs on different projects but I absolutely love this song so much I wouldn’t mind it being on all the IM releases. DraQuan and Jae always seem to be on the same wavelength when they work together. It’s like Michael and Scottie, the way they elevate each other’s game. And to do it over those beautiful horns was like they had home court advantage in a close out game.

The vulnerability shown on ‘I Love You’ was kinda tough to stomach at first, just because to hear him be so open about his pill addiction and his lost child was something you wouldn’t even think was happening just by looking at bro. It really felt like a release from Jae and it’s a really touching record about losses taken by a young man that normally would completely shut someone down. The story told should give you a perspective on life that should recharge your spirit to keep grinding through all the trials you encounter. For me, it pushes me to take the lumps and smile through them just like my Brother JaeTwo3.

I’m extremely proud of Jordan for being able a tape that could display the different spectrums of life as a young man raised in this era. Our love lives are more confusing, we’re in less control of our mental health, and we’re looking to be more than what our age say we are to be. ’Product of my Age’ is a fantastic outing from my little Brother.