{"id":709,"date":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2023\/07\/j-hus-beautiful-and-brutal-yard-review\/"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","slug":"j-hus-beautiful-and-brutal-yard-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2023\/07\/j-hus-beautiful-and-brutal-yard-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: J Hus, \u2018Beautiful and Brutal Yard\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Stratford bully\u2019s third album lingers on the spectrum of J Hus finesse and J Hus complacency, beautiful in potential yet brutal in execution.<\/p>\n

A handful of artists can get away with being elusive. Kanye West. Frank Ocean. Kendrick Lamar. Their fans will always be on standby for music, through thick and thin. On this side of the pond, that is East London\u2019s J Hus. His first two efforts, 2017\u2019s\u00a0Common Sense<\/em>\u00a0and 2020\u2019s\u00a0Big Conspiracy<\/a><\/em>, are acclaimed classics, who up to that point rapidly established himself as the most exciting rapper in the country, pioneering Afroswing and injecting charisma into the scene. A three-year absence led to his next release becoming the most anticipated UK rap album of recent years. Initially assumed to be titled\u00a0Don\u2019t Say Militancy<\/em>, the rapper finally dusts off his mic to see if he can strike a third time.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Beautiful and Brutal Yard<\/em>, J Hus offers an opened package; the product is delivered, but not signed or sealed.<\/p>\n

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Elliot Hensford<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beautiful and Brutal Yard<\/em>\u00a0finds Hus in the same lane as his 2017 debut,\u00a0Common Sense<\/em>. It hosts similar runtime and a combination of tried-and-tested genres, from Afroswing to UK rap and drill (explored later in 2020). It\u2019s a comfort zone for Hus, one he stays in throughout the album. Granted, familiar territory isn\u2019t necessarily a bad approach. There are plenty of artists whom stick to a sound and consistently deliver. But with\u00a0B.A.B.Y.<\/em>\u00a0there is the constant feeling of protected production, casual hooks, and ideas that had more potential than delivered. A master of melodies, J Hus\u2019 B.A.B.Y<\/em>\u00a0lacks those earworms to rival the likes of his best work, or when they do the rest of the song has a caveat that caps the song\u2019s enjoyment, such as Drake\u2019s subpar appearance on \u201cWho Told You\u201d which has one of the album\u2019s best hooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

B.A.B.Y.<\/em>\u00a0does have enough memorable moments to make it a decent album. The heavily anticipated, drill-heavy \u201cCream\u201d gallops with the darkest horsemen of violence, with CB unleashing the most barbaric UK drill verse of all-time. It\u2019s as \u2018brutal\u2019 as the yard gets, aptly delivering on the themes of the album while also being a capable song. \u201cCome Look\u201d uses the same sample as Nas\u2019 \u201cThun\u201d to standout effect. \u201cMassacre\u201d gives shades of\u00a0Big Conspiracy<\/em>\u00a0and its title track, entertaining through Hus\u2019 creative inflexions. The three-track combo of \u201cMiliterian\u201d, \u201cMasculine\u201d and \u201cNice Body\u201d scratch the itch of summer Hus, a healthy dose that could have benefited from existing in a shorter tracklist. \u201cIt\u2019s Crazy\u201d sounds far superior within the album than as a single, though that comes with the advantage of average company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Executive producer TSB described the album with three words: sex and violence. These are topics J Hus has always explored in creative, humorous ways. In reality,\u00a0B.A.B.Y.<\/em>\u00a0straddles the scope of 2020\u2019s\u00a0Big Conspiracy<\/em>\u00a0for these very reasons. So the choice to tackle sex as a subject is not the core issue. Nor does Hus need to go\u00a0To Pimp a Butterfly<\/em>\u00a0on us. The difference comes down to Hus not hitting the level of songwriting he\u2019s demonstrated before\u2014and at 19 tracks long, the focus becoming redundant. A song like\u00a0Big Conspiracy<\/em>\u2019s \u201cPlay Play\u201d entertains thanks to its use of a gun as a sexual metaphor, whereas songs like \u201cAlien Girl\u201d and \u201cFresh Water\/Safa Kara\u201d add no compelling spin to the topic of sex, ways only the mind of J Hus can conjure up. In the end, we\u2019re left with juvenile lines that are not funny nor entertaining. There is a difference between enjoying sex and being chronically horny.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, this isn\u2019t the case for every cut. Track 14 finds Hus describing his gun not as a mash, skeng, or bunsam, but as a \u201cProblem Fixer\u201d. It\u2019s a creative, unique descriptor that\u2019s instantly quotable, one that matches the songwriting found on Hus\u2019 all-time tunes. With more moments like these,\u00a0B.A.B.Y.\u00a0<\/em>could have excelled into conversations to rival his previous two albums.<\/p>\n

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