OOC: Ok so this guy's supposed to be all arrogant and a real horrible ass. Hope that comes across well.
Artist: J-Pain
Title: Dollas On Tap
Genre: Hip-hop
Label: N/A
Produced: Harley Vision
All lyrics and music by: Jamar Payne
Vocals: Jamar Payne
Guitars: Franklin Letts
Drums: Carson Davis
Dollas On Tap is a single released on July 1st 2015 by hip-hop artist J-Pain. The track sees Pain make his debut in the music industry after spending a number of years working in music production. The 23-year old has worked with a number of New York based rappers since leaving school at the age of 15, building up some experience as he made a vow to himself to make sure he could get away from the poor neighbourhood and poverty that he grew up in. The controversial track focuses on a number of key themes, showing how Pain thinks himself different from the people he grew up with, how he believes that anyone can drag themselves out of the gutter if they focus hard enough. It's clear that the rapper has no time for the people happy to live their whole life accepting their lot as she aims for the top himself. Controversy in the song comes in the form of the many different themes used as narrative tools by Pain. Throughout the track, he explores such sensitive issues as religion, gang violence, drug abuse and child neglect as he takes the listener on an aural journey of where he's come from, the people he grew up with and where he not only hopes, but expects, life will take him. It's a song layered with ego and attitude, and it's already clear that Pain is a guy who is going to split opinions wherever he is. For a debut single, this is clearly an indicator of things to come, and for a guy to be so edgy and pushing the boundaries this early suggests that Pain is someone who wants you to remember his name. This guy knows he is something special.
The song begins in an unconventional style that will already become the norm for Pain by the end of his first track, with a lone acoustic guitar playing a few gentle chords with no accompaniment, before the drums kick in and take real prominence. The track throughout employs a bare-bones sound that focuses mainly on the drums, with just a sprinkling of acoustic guitar. It's a style that allows the lyrics in the rhymes to really come to prominence, bringing out the message, the feeling and the truth behind every word we can hear, unobsrtructed by the music that backs them up. The rapping style of Pain is surprisingly laid back for a song that comes across as quite confrontational. His lyrics are hard hitting and controversial, but his style of delivery is smooth and slick, givin him an edge that should stand him in good stead, setting him apart from the typical rapper we've witnessed in recent years.
XXL Magazine Review, by Damon Williams
In rap circles, you're almost forgiven if you roll your eyes at yet another tale of hard knocks and rising up from the bottom. It's a clichéd story we've heard told a thousand times, at a hundred different speeds and with a hundred different backing tracks. Most of the time, of course, the story they're telling is true, so why has it become such a frowned upon theme to tackle? The answer, of course, is simple - we've seen it. Like I'm sure metal has heard stories of ancient demons for years, rap has heard just about every version of the hard life story there is to tell, and in short, if you're going to try to break into the more cluttered thematic spaces, you really oughtta come prepared with something special. Most don't, which is why when I read the PR slip that came along with J-Pain's Dollas On Tap, I rolled my eyes. Great...I thought...another guy who's going to tell me how he's managed to forge something from nothing and gave himself the life he never thought he even had the right to dream about. It almost went straight into the bin. It didn't seem worth it. How lucky J-Pain is, then, that a couple of reviews for this month fell through and I had to retrieve Dollas on Tap from the very rim of my trash can.
And he's not the only lucky one. I am. I admit that this review did not start with the best intentions. I've heard so many new rappers first songs and just laid into their clichéd sounds, limited musical ability, lack of vision and downright inability to have any semblance of identity. This is a busy game, boys, you gotta stand out. If you have no identity, your just gonna fall into the mix and get swept away in the current of bullshit hip-hop that ain't got no place trying to mix it with the big boys. But hey, let me stop for a second. You know who does have identity? J-Pain. Man, this motherfucker! Here's a guy, early 20s, coming out of New York with an attitude and a shitty ghetto upbringing, all the tools for a complete rap by numbers debut. And what does he do? He ignores it all. The guy is on his first ever track, and he just tears up all the fucking guidebooks and goes his own way. Sometimes you hear about a guy being "too arrogant". In rap, that ain't a thing. You need a guy coming straight outta the urban hellhole with an attitude that he the best and is on his way to the top.
The first thing that hits me here - the guitar, man! I'm so used to shitty drum tracks on these amateur tunes that my damn brain almost fell over when this song starts with some acoustic guitar. Like shit! Where you pulled that from, son? Next thing I know, I got a brother rapping shit about everyone he grew up around, telling them they ain't shit cos they ain't try to pull themselves out of the mess they're in. Man, this dude is harsh as fuck. He's laying it on everyone he knows. And yet he's doing it in this calm voice. Ain't no anger. Ain't no bullshit spittin', just a guy smoothly puttin' you down like the piece of trash he thinks you are. Fuck. That is genius. Get this guy a chair cos I'm gonna need to talk to this motherfucker. Seriously, though, what a way to look at this style of track. Forget the whole "I came from nothing" and look at it from the other side. Say "you all I left behind are still gonna be nothing!" Man, it's harsh, but this guy's delivering it like he thinks he's giving his friends some happy advice to help them. Maybe he thinks he is. It takes a cold heart or a specially arrogant mind to not only put someone on the floor like this, but also to paint it like some sort of glorified advice page. Damn!
This is what we needed. We got a guy here not afraid to stop taking himself so seriously. He's just saying "Alright, I know I wanna talk about my place, but I'm gonna shock you all," and delivering this classy motherfucking diss of everyone he knows. Shit, son. And at the same time, he's telling us all how he's gonna be king of the world. Sick rhymes, flashy imagery and a strong narrative. Man, take note, THIS is how you deliver a song about coming from nothing, bro! Gang violence, drugs, neglect, it got it all. And you know what else? He throwing religion into the mix! Man is straight up fucking telling me he's Jesus, coming down from heaven. What. The. Fuck? I love it. He's gonna get some hate for all those subjects. ALL of them. Sure. But it sits fine with me. I love a motherfucker who is brash enough to get in your face and tell you he's the second coming. This guy....this guy got it. There's something about him I just want to hate. That brash attitude before he's even a verse into his debut song, but I love it at the same time. This needs to be heard. Let's get him out there on the radio.
Jamar says"I was just a little kid when I first realised I was operating on a different plane from everybody else. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't want to be looking like I'm tryna put people down or claim I'm better than anyone else; it's just that no one else out there, or at least no one I know, is able to think on the sort of sonic levels I'm thinking. I was in school as a child and this teacher is tryna tell me I need to know mathematics and science and all of this. And I looked her in the eye, picture it, I'm 5 years old, badass as hell, in a school where most people can't even write they own name, and I said to her "No. All I really need to know is me. And I've known that for a long time." I think that was the first indication that the way I think is just so different to how anyone else is thinking. I feel like most of the world has this 3D way of thinking, you know what I'm saying? No? Well, you live in a 3D world, so it makes sense that you would think in a 3D style, yeah? But no. Not for me. To think only on the same plane as you live is showing such a lack of belief, ambition and imagination. If you can't think outside of reality, what are you? I'm thinking in so many more than three dimensions. I'm using at least six. I live my life in 6D, and it gives me this knowledge base to pull from that I don't think anyone else can see. You say God created the heaven and earth, but in my mind, in myself, I have created so much more using that as a simple, but beautiful, starting point.
"With that in mind, going into music was a natural starting point for me. I had a talent for creativity, I always did, and it wasn't about to get spoiled by sitting in a conventional job and doing normal things. When you got so much more to offer, those things just don't sit right with you. I tried a real job once, but it didn't work. It appeared that I was bad at the job, on the face of it at least, and I suppose that was the reality, but it wasn't the base reality. In the base reality, you have to look further. WHY was I bad at the job? It's because when the universe can see that you are destined for more, it can't allow you to be there wasting that talent. The universe could see I could not be allowed to work pumping gas, so it made me do some things that relieved me of that responsibility. It freed me. There ain't nothing in this world like being free from worries to do the thing you know you were specifically crafted to do. When that happened to me, I knew I had to get out there and do some music. That opened up all sorts of new cosmic responsibility, though. Because my music is basically required to be heard, I knew I had to get it out there for people to hear. It meant a lot to the world, even if they don't know it yet. I don't even expect everyone will understand where I'm coming from, even a lot of those who think they do but some people will for real, and that'll mean it all.
"This song, my debut record, it's a song that I felt I had to get done to get it outta the way. Not that I don't love it, because I do, but because the rap world needs this. You ain't paid your dues until you told everyone where you come from. It's almost like a hip hop resume or an application form. "Name: Jamar Payne. Address: Well I came from the bottom, Brooklyn son, you hear, now I'm headed out, climbing that ladder, you better be clear." You know what I mean? I think we just like origin stories in rap. And that's cool. It kinda sets you up for a start if people can get a sense of who you are, where you came from and what makes you tick. So yeah, but while I decided I wanted to do that sort of song, I wanted to do it a little differently. I'm not glorifying the streets I came from. Growing up there was hell. But I know people can get out. I did. And this song is saying that to people. It's an inspiration. I am sharing my knowledge, showing people the light. I am the light. And my song can guide them out of that dark place.
"I got a lot of people talking about the whole aspects of religion and violence in the song too. I don't know if anyone will take issue with that, but maybe they will. I just write from...not the heart. I write from a 6D plane high above the earth, and these are the thoughts I have. I gotta make my mark and I gotta talk about what people know. You gotta relate. I grew up around people who are talked about in this song. I'm telling them they don't need to be like they are. They can transcend that world, come from it but be without it. You don't have to be broke. Find that thing you were created for and let them dollars pour in, you know? It seems like such a simple concept. It is."
Sounds like (except without the lady part)
Been making shots since day one and you ain't see me miss
Alone shootin' for the stars ain't gon' need no accomplice
From Central Park to the Bronx this life takin' it's toll
I'm like a ship in the night, you won't hear me roll
Like that Bond, silent assassin, gonna steal your soul
Better believe every second that I'm takin' control
I'm your first thought in the morning, and your last each night
Ain't worried about these broke ass rappers, yo they ain't got fight
Why you getting dreamy eyes at every little bird who sings?
When the prince ain't even here with them diamond rings
So get a last look at the world that you think you know
Because I'm packing that heat and stalking down low low
So once I warm up, lemme see them dollas on tap
Cos they ain't seen nothing all across the map
From LAX to the Apple let them hear my name
Boy you ain't got nothing to extinguish my flame
Yo you came from the bottom, but I'm from the top
Descending down from heaven you know I ain't drop
Another cut and paste rhyme cos I'm original sin
Just an East Coast diamond here to seal the winSo sing another song if you just want to raise a dime
I'll be rollin' with my White House boys the more I rhyme
Yeah I be slicker than Fiddy, Mathers, Dre and Kidd Amaze
And all I need to make it rain is a golden turn of phrase
Yall heard nothing til I bless you, yeah you feel that chill
Yo, let this be a warning I ain't even ready for the kill
See the only Hood I've ever really known is Red Ridin'
And when the wolves are at my door you know I ain't be hidin'
Cos I've come to learn that when the writing's on the wall
You better learn to climb fast before your empire fall
Open your eyes, all the better to see the bleak reality
And when those teeth bared, time to run, here's your fatality
So once I warm up, lemme see them dollas on tap
Cos they ain't seen nothing all across the map
From LAX to the Apple let them hear my name
Boy you ain't got nothing to extinguish my flame
Yo you came from the bottom, but I'm from the top
Descending down from heaven you know I ain't drop
Another cut and paste rhyme cos I'm original sin
Just an East Coast diamond here to seal the winSee this is where I'm from but I ain't sayin' it's all
Climbing up from there every day saw me riskin' a fall
Now I see that green in every single rhyme that I spit
Write these bars knowing I can make it, hit after hit
And I'm never lookin' back, misty eyed at my old town
Cos there's demons back there they try draggin' me down
So once I warm up, lemme see them dollas on tap
Cos they ain't seen nothing all across the map
From LAX to the Apple let them hear my name
Boy you ain't got nothing to extinguish my flame
Yo you came from the bottom, but I'm from the top
Descending down from heaven you know I ain't drop
Another cut and paste rhyme cos I'm original sin
Just an East Coast diamond here to seal the win 