J-Live of course is the triple threat emcee/deejay/producer originally from New York, now residing in Atlanta, who has been going strong since the mid-‘90s. In December of 2016, he released an EP called At The Date Of This Writing (Vol. 1), which promised to be the first in a series of self-produced EPs. While things haven’t yet panned out that way, we do finally get a new EP from J-Live, called Lose No Time.

J-Live has been at this thing for a minute, and sometimes you just want to hear someone do what they do best, and that’s exactly what you get with Lose No Time. It’s just seven songs of what J-Live does best, which is funky, soul-sampling production, killer scratching, and clever wordplay with some keen social observations. If that sounds simple, let me assure that it absolutely is not. This is something that takes a lot of dedication and practice to achieve, and J-Live has more than put in the work to make something like this sound so effortless. There are a few songs, such as “Hating,” that start off sounding simple, like you think it’s just going to be some basic boom bap while he rhymes about having haters, but then J-Live starts to peel away the lyrical layers and reveals this brilliant song that examines hate and love from many different angles and will really make you think long and hard about what those words mean to you. Or it could be the brilliant doo-wop swing and scratching featured on “Right Now,” or just the incredibly open and honest discussion of philosophy and religion on “Nat Turner.” It’s everything you want from EP from a veteran like J-Live.

Lose No Time might seem simple on the surface, but J-Live is an artist who really understands what makes great hip hop from all the angles. He takes the time to pack his songs with lyrical and musical layers that you can keep uncovering, all while giving you really accessible hooks that will stick in your head all day.