Jay Rock's "90059" is His Best Work to Date & Possibly a Classic

  If I had to sum up Jay Rock's album "90059" in so many words, I would say that it is a beautiful silhouette of a hood tale told through the perspective of a mental patient.

Jay Rock's second studio LP "90059" has got to be one of the best, if not the best album to drop this year. Rock candidly presented to us who he really is as an artist and person with this album. I think this LP's impressive production helped put Jay Rock's personality into every beat. The beats come off as hard-hitting and angry initially, but there is an underlying struggle that adds another gorgeous layer to convey who Jay Rock is. Of course the beats would be nothing if Rock's lyrics weren't so open on this album, specifically on the last track called "The Message". It really took me into his view of the world and threw me into his shoes to see the resilience and hope that arose despite the many hardships in his life.

Another notable thing I loved about this album were the features. The majority of them were kept in the TDE family, so it felt like they were rapping his life through their perspective. Obviously the verses they spit or hooks they sang had their own personalities, such as with Kendrick Lamar and SZA on "Easy Bake". But they know Jay Rock so well that it comes off as a continuation of his story featuring another storyteller. The feature that truly blew my mind was Macy Gray! Getting her on a track is probably hard enough as is and to do that along with Busta Rhymes for "Fly on the Wall" was amazing. Macy's hook brought you into Jay Rock's world as he observed what he saw and Jay Rock straight up gives us the harsh reality of what goes down and where he's from in his verse. It's a song I thought defined the album well by playing the duel role of a hood tale but showing where his insane side stems from. It ended up being my personal favorite.



 


As strong as those features were on "90059", they never took away Jay Rock's footing. I always knew who's album it was and who was steering the direction of the songs. Even his stand alone tracks set that tone just as strongly. Each song is an immediate attention grabber that wastes no time sucking you into Rock's world, which made me invest so much time listening to it. Every element made this LP not only sound amazing sonically, but amazing conceptually and creatively as well. Jay Rock's first studio album "Follow Me Home" was good but "90059" is great. This album is him and I love it because it woke up a whole demographic of listeners to realize the greatness in Jay Rock's music. I like each song through and through and I find it is an album I keep running back to. Without a doubt, Jay Rock has a potential classic on his hands. I can't wait till it's officially deemed that status.

Stream the album in full below.

Lead Photo Creds: pitchfork.com/ew.com