Artist Spotlight: Joey Bada$$

Joey Bada$$ is a 17 year old rapper from Brooklyn New York who recently dropped his debut mixtape "1999". I decided to do an artist spotlight of Joey and 1999 as opposed to a review because I've already proclaimed the mix-tape as (in my beautiful opinion) the best of 2012 so far and I found it would be redundant to review it after such a statement. So I chose to dedicate my latest post to introducing this very talented young artist to new listeners

The most baffling and perhaps appealing aspect of Joey's talent, aside from the fact that he has shown the potential for greatness and the kid can't even buy scratch-off tickets is that his flow and style are about five years older than he is.

The boom-bap style of 90s East Coast hip-hop is pulled off excellently by Joey even though the gritty and raw sound was well out of the mainstream well before he could even coherently remember the right from left. I think that's the biggest reason I am attracted to his sound, he doesn't sound his age at all. Earl Sweatshirt, although very talented sounds his age, sounds under 20 years old using shock-rap content and other occasionally immature word plays. Not to hate on Earl because I am a fan, but just using him as an example

If the names of Big L, naS, and KRS One appeal to your liking, or if you're just a fan of the boom-bap sound of East Coast hip-hop, then certainly check out Joey Bada$$ and "1999". Destined for greatness after his first project, very impressed, keep the good material flowing.