soft, not hard at all....

Jel
"Soft Money"
(Anticon)

Jel is a part of the Anticon collective who, more or less, ruled independent hip-hop between 1998 and 2001. While some loose associates and labelmates such as Slug and Sage Francis have gone on to greener pastures, most the crew allowed their talents to dry up in a barren wasteland, only to be appreciated by coked out electroclash-loving hipsters who needed a new rap group to listen to since Anti-Pop broke up.

Not to say that everything that Anticon has put out since 2001 has been entirely awful but, with the exceptions of 13 & God and Why?, none of the releases have been in the caliber of Deep Puddle Dynamics' debut or the potential of Object Beings. That said, producer and part-time emcee Jel has a new album on Anticon called "Soft Money."

Like many of his Anti brethren, Jel's topics tend to revolve around political and social issues, so it's not like he's really pushing boundaries. Dull songs with dull rapping such as the opener "To Buy a Car" plagues this record. In fact, all the good songs are instrumental tracks and had Jel cut his vocal performance from the album, he very well may have had an "Endtroducing" in his hands. Instead, we're left with a "Wu-Tang Forever," an album full of promise, but weighed down by its own hype.