J’Von is an emcee/producer from Seattle who has worked with artists like Ackryte and Lakim since he started putting out music in the early 2010s. His most recent release came in October of 2020, when he dropped the album Thunderboy. Now he’s back with a new full-length album, King Cheetah.

In the not-too-distant past, J’Von accidentally wiped his computer and feared that everything was lost. While the majority of it was gone, he was able to recover the music on this album. Listening to King Cheetah, there is something demo/rough draft about the minimalist production and free flowing rhymes, but when you go through an ordeal like that with J’Von’s computer, you don’t think twice and sit on it again – you release this music to the world. The nice part of this is that through these circumstances, we get this really intimate and soulful looking into J’Von as he’s playing with these soul music loops and he just lets this rhymes flow without too much concern for trying to craft these into polished pop songs. He’s just using these beats to work through his thoughts about being a dad and making his way through this life as a Black man in America. It should also be noted that the cover work for this album is a painting that J’Von made with his daughter, which gives an extra layer of sweetness on the project. When you put it all together, it makes for an album that is best listened to on headphones where you can really get lost in these beautiful loops and layers and just let J’Von’s words bounce around your head and take in his point of view and thoughts on where he is in his life.

King Cheetah isn’t anything too unusual, but it’s a sweet project that shows you a vulnerable side of J’Von. He cares about his daughter, and it comes through more than anything on this album.