Also the year 2006: My childhood friend was having a birthday party. I knew he had Don Johnson Big Band's previous record – Breaking Daylight – and he had said he liked it very much, so, as a birthday present, I bought him the follow-up album that had just come out. Before wrapping the present up, I decided to rip the CD onto our family computer, and it is very good I did so. The album is hip hop, but there are a lot of jazz elements, and the general mood is very melancholic. With this record, I learnt to not only tolerate rap but also appreciate it for what it is. The best song on this record is "Hidden Rainbow", but since it doesn't contain any rapping, the excerpt will be "Private Intentions" instead.
My take on Don Johnson Big Band: I haven't heard the first record (editor's note: now I have and it's… okay, I guess?). It doesn't exist on the internet, although there is a double vinyl repress coming out soon and I'm intrigued (editor's note: this is how I ended up becoming familiar with it). The best songs on second album (the aforementioned "Breaking Daylight") are perhaps a bit surprisingly the big hits "One MC, One Delay" and "Jah Jah Blow Job". This third record is very strong pretty much the whole way through. The fourth record ("Records Are Forever") has two good songs on it – "Running Man" and the country song "Dirt". The rest is perhaps geared a bit too much towards mainstream sensibilities to satisfy me. Last thing to note: Emma Salokoski is a recurring "feat." on Don Johnson Big Band's records.
influence: appreciating hip hop
excerpt: Private Intentions (YouTube)
This post was retroactively compiled on 2024-01-19 from an old Facebook post.