Jaba - Trapped (EP) - OUT NOW! (FREE)

[yung rom]

Y'all missing the concept fam

[shadyblogger]

Y'all missing the concept fam

Exactly my point. Jaba could've had the coolest concept around but because of the poor vocals and difficulty in understanding what he was saying, we missed the concept.

[yung rom]

Y'all missing the concept fam

Exactly my point. Jaba could've had the coolest concept around but because of the poor vocals and difficulty in understanding what he was saying, we missed the concept.

Oh... I could understand it pretty clearly, at times it was hard but it never stopped me from understanding what was going on. In my review, I did touch on the concepts that jaba clearly intended to appear throughout the EP

[shadyblogger]

Do you have license to dick ride like that?

[shadyblogger]

Lol

[yung rom]

blogs, just read Rom's review. It'll all makes sense lol

it's so quotable

[shadyblogger]

@yung rom, seriously bro, what's the deal? Not too long ago you were chill af and a cool dude and now you've turned into an emo guy who's constantly on Jaba's dick. I still like you bro but what's up? Is this just some massive troll thing you have going on or is something personal going on that's causing you to act like this? Cuz man, you are different.

[yung rom]

too many levels 4 yung rom

[shadyblogger]

@yung rom, seriously bro, what's the deal? Not too long ago you were chill af and a cool dude and now you've turned into an emo guy who's constantly on Jaba's dick. I still like you bro but what's up? Is this just some massive troll thing you have going on or is something personal going on that's causing you to act like this? Cuz man, you are different.

Are you trolling now?

Is this some type of trollception?

[yung rom]

McGooch still does it better than I do so propz

[shadyblogger]

McGooch still does it better than I do so propz

You learn from the master

[yung rom]

still thought my review was goat tho
props to jaba tho, that still my homie

[Jaba]

This is by far the single greatest project my eardrum's have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I'll go track by track because each one deserves as much compliments as I can fit into this one reply.

01. Intro/Trapped - Brass is beautiful. Your mic is a lot higher quality than I've ever heard before. I'm digging the complex rhyme schemes too. Can't understand why no one else in here seems to be aware of your dragged out multis, we should get ronnie in this thread, he'd understand. Your voice is a wonderful blend of the modern teen and MMLP influence, I totally dig. The devil voice is something really original I liked, never heard it executed like that before. I especially like the line "Please find out where I live and fucking arrest me." Really shows your complex wall of emotions, wanting so much to be freed from the life you're "trapped" in that you would risk going to jail for the rest of it. So, you basically say you're even more trapped in your mind than you could be if you were literally trapped. That's mad deep man, and the concept is a lot better than these other cats in the audio section. You could probably teach them a thing or two. I'm gonna keep showing the creative and beautiful concepts you exhibit throughout the concept EP because I feel like maybe not everyone will appreciate/understand it. Anyway, great track. Not gonna do a rating thing on this because I feel like scoring 10/10 on each on wouldn't be enough.

02. Alone - Heard this song already, but within the EP, it is totally enhanced, and thus deserves as much a review as the rest of the tracks. Your singing is actually on some mainstream level shit (in a good way), and if you're really untuned like everyone seems to think, you are certainly impressive. I would say to consider a singing career, although it might be hard for you to get your complex, awesome concepts across without the amount of lyrics rap can supply. Moving on, instrumental really compliments your voice. I like how with this track, you introduce the next idea of not only be trapped, but separated from the people you love. Now, being trapped, you see the life you used to live, and miss it, even though you never appreciated it back then (something illustrated in "I Hate You," which clearly is only there to show how you used to feel before being so trapped). You go so far as to say you feel like you're "At the top of the world," something most people wouldn't think if they were alone, but it shows your impressive understanding of the human condition. This is a personal favorite for me. Rhyming is also on some next level tech n9ne ish, I dig

03. Hope - Now, I'll be completely honest: I originally dismissed "Hope" just because the garageband loops left me presuming it would be garbage. However, after listening to it all the way through, without being judgmental, I see the true genius of the song. The line "I wonder, do I stand out?" really made an impression on me. In this track, you start by questioning whether or not anyone will remember you when you're gone. You go on to say how you rap and such, yet don't do it for the recognition. I like how you put this, considering you make it seem at the beginning that you're afraid of being forgotten. But at this point in the song, you reveal that you don't care if you're forgotten, you're simply doing it for the art and for the need to express yourself, something that would be hard for someone so "trapped." You then say, "I'm just a kid in the city; leave me alone," showing how you believe your situation is so different from everyone else's that it's not like anyone would understand you anyway. This shows that the fact you make songs is simply for you, making you completely different from people like Lil Wayne who would be working at McDonalds if Tupac was still alive. In the chorus, you sing about succeeding, but really, you just mean succeeding at expressing yourself, and not caring what anyone else thinks. While the thoughts and criticisms have led to you being stuck in this funk and being "trapped," perhaps the way out is figuring out that the thoughts and ideas of other people don't matter if you're able to truly understand yourself. Perhaps there's still "hope."

04. Inspiration - Clearly a mirror track to "Hope," but this one is made to show your mind state before you got trapped and drew such conclusions about yourself from this. The combination of the professional sounding instrumental and professional recording make something that I could see myself listening to on the radio. You should make this into a music video man, it has boundless potential. Flow is godly. I like how you're talking about how you're too scared to talk to the girl you like, poetically describing yourself at the time as a "fucking wet pussy." I would assume the person you're talking about in this track is the same as the one discussed in "Alone," when you talk about the people you love. You say how you would've pursued this person, but you lacked any inspiration, due to all the criticisms put in your way. Now, it's too late to tell them how much you care because you're so deeply trapped in your mind. Singing at the end (bridge included) literally brought a tear to my eye. Never have I heard such an exhibit of emotion on TRShady, let alone on the hip hop scene since the subliminal-message-filled birthday song by 2Chainz was released.

05. I Hate You - Instrumental was okay, but not exactly up to par with the other fantastic beats featured on this album like the realistic pianos of "Alone," the even-better-than-the-original-instrumental of "Drug Ballad," and of course, the best instrumental I've heard on here since 2012, "Hope." Still, I thought this was gonna be a minus on the album, but you, as usual with this EP, proved me wrong. Song is an amazing step into the adolescent mind as he accuses all the people who criticize him around him and counters with clever, grade-A comebacks like "fucking faggots," "you look like strippers," "scum... you understand that?" "stupid shitty goths, why can't you just kill yourselves" and "suck on a cum." While I thought "Inspiration" was gonna have the biggest exhibit of emotion on this album, this chorus proved me way way wrong. Just hearing your hoarse voice scream sent goosebumps trickling down my spine. While I thought the brilliantly written attacks placed on your fellow peers from your verse couldn't be topped, you yet again proved me wrong with the simple, yet extremely effective "I will hate you." Next time someone insults or criticizes me, I am 100% using that as a comeback. Basedshady - I don't think Jaba was being homophobic on the "you're a fag line" whatsoever. While smartasses also think it's cool when they say "A faggot is a bundle of sticks, DUH!" and that's clearly never what anyone means by that word, I plugged it into this context, and I believe it was an amazing play on words by Jaba. He says "you're a fag," leaving anyone who is even mildly put off by him the grounds to attack and go at him, yet all he's saying you are is a pile of sticks. You're a pile of sticks that has the power to be ignited and burn him down with your criticism and all, but as long as he doesn't light the flame, you remain powerless. ... It's a metaphor.

06. 12 At Night (feat. Eedee & Mr. DGAF) - For this song, I'm only going to review Jaba's verse, and that's for a couple reasons. The first being that I don't think DGAF or Eedee, and respects to both, fully understood the ingenious underlying concepts of the EP, and so couldn't make verses that went along with it. I'll go one step further, and don't take offense at this guys, but Jaba's mic quality, flow, rhyming, and personality was far ahead of both of yours'. You of course should not take offense at that because before I said that I specifically instructed you not to take offense. Jaba - this track is incredible, showing the skill you have in continuing a concept without ever specifically mentioning it. You discuss hanging out late and ignoring all curfews. Before you got trapped in the state of your mind - left to explore it - you would stay out late because it was past the bed times of all the bullies, so you could live free of them. You go on to say "We must fight against time," meaning you want to make the night-time setting forever, so you stop getting all the hate and criticism. You then say "Every breath could be your last," saying how once it's late at night, you rule, and even if there were a bully there to confront you, they wouldn't stand a chance. This song also shows the setting in which you are now (trapped, of course). You're buried deep in the corners of the your mind, so while it might not necessarily be night, there are still not any bullies, and you are empowered. Whatever happened to get you to where you are, it has left you free of all criticism, and free to analyze your life without mean, sarcastic commentary.

07. Diss Song - Ahhh, diss song. I've talked shit about this song, mostly because of the presence of what I viewed as a random diss towards me, but now I see that it's just another aspect of an ingeniously engineered masterpiece. This is a mirror to "I Hate You," this one made after you've become buried and "trapped." "I Hate You," as I previously discussed, takes place before, and is directed at real people, while after you explore yourself, you use this song to call out people on the internet. While this was regarded by most people on this forum as a loser move, I see it more as a metaphor. Before, you were hurt by real people and are forced to make comebacks (which, I'll admit, are all great), but in this setting, the only people left to get back at are those from the web. This is an improvement if you ask me, because the only people insulting you now are those that don't understand your personal and emotional situation, whereas in "I Hate You," you were talking to people who insulted you because of your personal and emotional situation. Still, in the end, you reach another conclusion, different from that stated at the beginning of the song, causing its meaning to suddenly change. You say "Watch out 'cause you don't belong in this game." Even though the only people hating on you now are those that don't even know or understand you, you say that they still don't belong in your mind, showing extreme growth in maturity. That's the best aspect of this song to be honest. From the outside, it looks like an immature, stupid, idiotic, homophobic, pointless, loser, decrepit shell of a human being. Within the context of the EP, it becomes something that shows how much more you've grown since the start of the album when you complained about being trapped. You're truly using the situation you've been stuck in to your advantage, and I applaud you for this, sir.

08. Night Out (feat. Mat Demaz) - The choice of instrumental for this track is genius, and although you clearly understand the reason why, I'll still write it down so all these non-understanding fools can see the true intentions behind Jaba's actions. The point of the Rick Rolling is too fool someone, so at the beginning of the track, it seems like your intent is to fool the listener. However, this is not the case. In a wowing change of events, you're actually showing how you fooled the person mentioned in "Inspiration." While you described her as meaning the world to you, you've now seen that she was simply among the other people criticizing you and making fun of you. She pretended to like you and even love you, but she was secretly doing it only to poke fun at you. It's sorta like someone reviewing an album they - along with everyone else - thought was crap, and then praising it, purely for mockery. Screw people like that. Back to the subject, you've realized she was really stabbing you in the back this whole time, and now see that you wouldn't have been able to come back from being trapped until you reached this revelation. I love how say "Jaba is just for 'just a bitch and asshole,'" referring to the nickname this person calls you behind your back. The best part is, you take that nickname and use it solely to your advantage, releasing an awe-inspiring EP under the alias of what could be considered your lowest moment. Rapping and flowing, as usual, was incredible. I know this might seem crazy, but this song is what brought you into my top 5. Demaz - it was ok, I guess, but put against the genius of Jaba, you sorta seem like you're just rambling. Don't take offense at this, and you can't now that I've told you not to, but I'm confident saying that Jaba totally renegaded you on this track. I mean c'mon, he's rapping about incredibly hidden concepts and you're just doing some standard rap verse. Better luck next time buddy. Jaba - incredible track on your part. Props to you both. Still giving Demaz props for agreeing to do a song with someone he knew would be better, so I admire your confidence, sir.

09. Fucked Over - Ah, the final track of an incredible EP. Closure. You sing again on this track, and it's once again incredible. Using the first verse to apologize for all your mistakes and then go on to attack everyone around you was ingenious. That's because it's from the viewpoint of yourself after being trapped and before being trapped, obviously. In this track, you offer another explanation for the origin of your name, saying how it's from a Relapse song. This is clearly untrue, and the nickname by your backstabbing crush is clearly the true version, but this is your way of apologizing to her for any mistakes you may have made and showing that you still respect her, even though you may not necessarily love her anymore. The idea behind this track is showing how you initially became trapped, so it's sorta like a cyclical album. People fuck you over, and it leads to you being trapped. However, this track has been made as you recover your lost strength, so its interesting to hear you tell two stories at one time. On the last verse, you go on to say things similar to what you said in "I Hate You," which was confusing to me at first, because it seemed to show the loss of all the maturity you had gained throughout the EP. However, I listened to it again, and released the last verse is directed at the version of you rapping in "I Hate You," saying how even though the haters were mean, the only person you really hate now is the one that fired back, because he was too weak to deal with it and not base his life off of the opinions of others. That last verse was the best possible way you could have ended this masterpiece of an EP, and it is truly spectacular.

_________

This is the greatest thing ever to be posted in audio section. Couldn't help but notice at first that this album was posted exactly a year after I released my debut, and I was flattered, but then I realized my album is not even comparable to this collection of insight, realization, and maturity. No doubt the greatest, smartest, and most well-spoken user/rapper on TR. Gonna send this to every single person I know, because anyone who hasn't heard this thought-changing beauty is truly lacking something in their life.

Trollllllllll

[shadyphantom91]

Here is my review:

This sucked bad. I couldn't listen to more than 15 seconds of each song. Work on everything from your flow, to your delivery, and your writing. Acknowledge your flaws and work on improving them, if you fail to do so, you will always suck.

And that's the bottomline cause Aone10 said so! Bro I applaud you for putting all this work into it as some of the beats were nice but you seriously need to work on your rhyming and delivery.

[yung rom]

Ight, I'll do a legit review just bc I know how hard you worked on this. Not gonna do a track by track review bc I already spent way too much time on that troll thing, but I can leave you some feedback.

I think you mentioned a couple months ago you'd been rapping for a little under a year, and if that's true props to you. Hearing this, I was reminded of my first album, where my voice sounded a little more similar to yours, quality was similar, and I too used gb loops. My first album was pretty shitty and that's not my way of insulting yours because I think yours is way ahead of mine. Still, my style and everything has changed and improved a lot since I started and I think yours will too.

Your influence of Eminem comes across really strongly in this, especially his MMLP accent, and I think that's something you need to work on. Coming from someone who also rips off Eminem in his songs (to at least some extent), I get how hard it can be to find your "true voice" or whatever bc it's usually not like you're purposely trying to sound like that. Still, if you just keep at it and switching up your styles, you're bound to find it eventually.

I agree with everyone talking about a mic. I think you said over Skype you were using a 10 dollar mic or something. That's fine for just fooling around, but if you really start taking music seriously, I would highly suggest investing in a better mic. I was still able to catch most of what you said, but from what other members are saying, I think it was pretty hard to understand you sometimes. The accent added to that too.

The instrumentals were really good, but I do have a suggestion for whoever made them (Python, I'm guessing..?). All the melodic stuff sounded great, just in a sense of the melodies being cool and the sound seeming full, but the drums seemed in some way repressed, like they were low-qual. Obviously idk your situation for production, but you should try finding some higher quality kits.

I talked a lot about bs concepts in my review, but you still had some good ideas. I think you just need to work on communicating them better, and the whole swearing every line got a little stale after a few songs and made it seem like you didn't have much to talk about. The album also lacked self-awareness, other than the part where you called your past self a "pussy" or whatever. I think that's still something you need to work on, but that may be more of a personal thing rather than rap-related.

Overall, decent effort. I'm not gonna rate this album because people shit all over my first one and made me feel terrible. Almost quit after its release. I don't think its as much as a mess as some people are saying, seeing as its your first project and all, but I think you still have huge room for improvement. Just keep at it bro