This is what happens when DJs become the producers, stripping away the egos, vague messages and the rest of the nonsense and ending up with the words and sounds of artists that are in a class of their own.
DJ Irs, also known as ‘The Poets DJ’, debuted For Those Listening earlier this year, bringing together a group of the most innovative and multi-disciplinary hip hop artists, poets, singers, rappers on one platform.
The album pulls out all the emotions from its listeners. You’ll laugh at the words of Big Mike in ‘P.S.A’, when he says, “skinny [women] gets swine flu first…and the cooties,” as he rhymes about being a fat person in America surrounded by everything skinny and lean. How can you not chuckle? Then there’s the sultry voice of Zulma in ‘Nascent’, which takes me to a peaceful place every time. With the words in ‘Say You Do’ by Sirah with her unique sound similar to Lauryn Hill in ‘FU-GEE-LA’, will make you sentimental of the good ole’ days.
Each artist is a powerful storyteller in their own right, but their words combine with sounds and music leaves you in deep thought and makes you understand where they are coming from. It’s like being engrossed in a good book. Particularly the words of performing poets like, Caits Meissner in ‘Make You Do Wrong’, Gemineye in ‘Second Chances’ who uniquely describes the destruction of an AIDS victims from death and Rainmaker in ‘Father Song’ speaking of the generation gaps between father and son.
The music, words, poetry, instrumentals, raps and singing in this album are not just thrown together to sound nice and sell. It is the experiences, pain and happiness, hardships, cultures, love gained and love lost of the speaker. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several of the artist in this album perform live and many times their words coming alive with the sounds and music of DJ Irs from the background. I witnessed M. Josephine & Ian Khadan do an impromptu performance of ‘When Considering’ back in New Jersey that captivated the whole room. I followed the rap poetry of Shadokat since 2007 and enjoyed the energetic stage presence of Silent Knight with his social and political lyrics.
As the US holiday, Thanksgiving, approaches this week, DJ Irs have much to be thankful for in 2010. Yes, releasing this appropriately titled album, For Those Listening, was just the beginning. DJ Irs, born Alex Acevedo, married his long time love, M. Josephine, who with her powerful soulful voice sings ‘Twisted Love’ in the album and they recently became very proud parents of baby girl, Myja. But there is no slowing down for Irs, with a handful of projects in the works for the upcoming year and possibly a follow-up to For Those Listening. Now that would be a treat.
