('City Hall Minutes' will be City Hall's countdown series of songs, albums, etc. in a certain artist or producer's discography. At least, that's what the idea is now. It may change. For now, it's a countdown. This is the first entry in that series.)
In my "Road to Recovery" piece on Eminem, I mentioned a certain "criminally underrated" producer by the name of Jim Jonsin. After reading the final draft, that line clicked a bit more. He really is criminally underrated. Can that be changed? Hell, I'm a writer with minimal pull, might as well do my part to properly rate Jonsin, a guy who has quickly become one of my favorite producers.
Jonsin's influence has popped up in so many places -- this season on American Idol, signing B.o.B as the first act on his Rebel Rock label, etc. -- and has collected many accolades -- a Grammy, multiple No. 1 hits -- that you probably haven't even realized. By definition, he's underrated. Let's change that.
From an XXL Magazine interview in April of 2009:
XXL: Why do you think your music is bigger than your name?
Jonsin: I don't know. It's funny, I was just...the past few artists I worked with, even with Lloyd. I was with Lloyd a couple of weeks ago and one of his buddies and they asked me to tell them what songs I've done. When I named the songs they flipped out, like 'Wow, you did that? You did that?' And so I made a CD the other day off my lady's computer. I said, 'Let me just put something together just to reflect back on the records I've done.' And I'm talking about what I call my new run being this new stuff and then the old run and then the very old run when I was Jealous J back when I had bass music out [in the early '90s]. But now, I'd say from like 2003 until now, there was some really good songs on there. So to myself it's pretty impressive, but yeah I've moved on from that, from winning awards from stuff I did yesterday... I think my name is a lot smaller than the music I've done, and I just hired a publicist for the first time in my career really. I had a publicist in the past, I wasn't really interested in being this famous guy. I just wanted to make the music, but now I think having the notoriety, people know who I am and just inspiring other people, is important to my legacy and to everybody in my family."
Honorable Mention:
Beyoncé has done much better, as has Jonsin. But the producer's ability to cross over genres and styles, proven with this song, warrants its inclusion. He's tremendously versatile. Gotta appreciate that in a producer.
10:
A tight piano loop compliments
Jonsin-drums (heavy and rock-esque), with a little love from B.o.B on
the hook. J. Cole, in my relatively limited experience with his
music, seems to thrive on heavy beats like this. He's extremely
comfortable and tackles some pretty taboo stuff on this track,
further fueling his hype machine. This record is complete:
interesting lyrics, great beat, catchy hook. Very interested to see
if this makes J. Cole's debut album; here's to hoping it does.
9:
Up front, let me just say that
I don't like Soulja. I think he sucks. I think he helped start -- and
has since been (shockingly) limited to -- "ringtone rap." His
hand in the creation of that term/genre means I'll always hate him.
(And on "Crank Dat:" If you have a brain, you shouldn't enjoy
that song more than a five out of ten. If it wasn't for that dance to
go along with it, the song would be even worse. Gag.)
As for "Kiss Me Through the
Phone," I give the majority of credit to Jonsin and
smooth-yet-generic-voiced Sammie for making me legitimately like a
track that's credited to Soulja. Who cares if it sounds veryyyyyy
similar to No. 5 on this list? It's catchy. It's stupidly relatable.
It contains great depth, especially in the verses. (That last one was
a joke.) But I don't want to talk about Soulja any longer, might get
too frustrated. Let's move on.
8:
It's crazy what has happened to Nelly. The guy created great, and I mean great hip-pop in the early part of the decade -- "Country Grammar" and "Ride Wit Me" to name only two -- yet severely fell off a cliff (not unlike the infamous O'Doyles) musically since. I would venture to say that he hadn't made a legit, good song in five years (I'm counting "Grillz"). Until this one dropped.
Sure, it was inescapable on the radio (a pattern you'll see with Jonsin productions) for a month or so, but don't let that deter you from appreciating its quality. A cool guitar lick opens and sets the tone for Nelly to absolutely kill the melody, a common thread in Jonsin productions. Maybe there are better songs in Jonsin's discography, but there mere fact that this song resurrected Nelly from a musical graveyard in STL kicked it up a few notches in my book. When Nelly is good, he's very good at creating well-rounded hip-pop. Give Jonsin a Deron Williams-esque assist on this one and enjoy.
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Find out the rest of the countdown, including which #1 hit is #1, after the jump!
