You’re 22 years old. Toronto is hoping – really hoping – that you can be their next rap star, even though you haven’t released an album yet. What to do with that kind of pressure? If you’re Jazz Cartier, you go all in.
Marauding In Paradise is a tale of two Cartiers. Beast-mode Jazz tells fakes to get the fuck outta downtown. He growls and shrieks. At his most savage, his baritone is like DMX meets Danny Brown meets Tanya Tagaq. His producer, Lantz, matches the vocal intensity with brooding, heavy-handed, trap-indebted beats Travis Scott fans will love legit bangers Dead Or Alive and New Religion.
But there’s another Jazz, too. He raps about book clubs instead of night clubs. His girl is Annie Hall and he’s Alvy Singer. On Guardian Angel, he samples Blackberry Molasses by 90s Atlanta R&B group Mista. He makes a breakup song out of a Toro y Moi track on Rose Quartz/Like Crazy.
It takes chutzpah to release an album where you go from sounding completely unhinged (Holy Shit) to desperately needing a night at home with Sandra Bullock (Secrets Safe/Local Celebrity Lifestyle). And it takes crazy talent to pull it off so well.
Top track: Dead Or Alive
Jazz Cartier plays the Garrison on May 7 and the Danforth Music Hall on May 9 as part of CMW.
