Yo hope everyone's doing well!

After releasing my debut album Luminescence last July, I've been working on a lot more beats, and this mixtape compiles a few of the better ones I've made since then. It would genuinely mean a lot to me for anyone to check it out, it's only 22 minutes so it hopefully won't take too much time out of your day. Hope you enjoy, much love!

SoundCloud link: ... read more

98->100

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really gotten into Lupe, aside from having heard a few of his more highly praised songs like Kick, Push and Mural here and there, so yesterday I decided to check out this album, Food and Liquor, as I’d been meaning to for ages. I thought I’d enjoy it, but I wouldn’t have expected to enjoy it this much.

The production here reeks of the 2000’s, but that’s one of the things I love most about this record. Every beat ... read more

Breaking my 3 month absence of reviews to just say rest in peace to an absolute goat, one of the best to ever do it.

*Just got this up on most streaming platforms, feel free to check the album out from here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/jbjohnston2011/luminescence

Hey everyone!
Just released my debut LP, ‘Luminescence’. Been working on it ever since my EP dropped around November of last year, and it’s been a real passion project and hobby of mine so far this year. It’s gone through a lot of problems but I’m really happy with its final product. Hope you guys ... read more

Good news (or bad news, whichever way you look at it): exams and end-of-school projects are finally over on my end, so that means I’ll hopefully start being able to pump out some more reviews over the summer. Because of how busy I’ve been over the past few weeks, I haven’t really been listening to a whole lot of new albums either, so that’s something I’d really like to get back into along with writing more reviews.

Earlier today I was pretty bored, so I decided ... read more

One of the most chaotic and jam-packed albums so far this year.

Being my introduction to McKinley Dixon’s stuff, I was super intrigued and excited to check out what he had in store, as I’d heard how much people had enjoyed and constantly praised his previous record ‘Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?’ from 2023, and I also saw how incredibly high ‘Magic, Alive!’s ratings were off its first day of release (a 90??!!) All I knew about his music though was that it was ... read more

This is the greatest song of all time and I’ll forever stand by that take. Never once over the hundreds of times I’ve listened to this song have I lost that same sensation I received off my first listen, a feeling of absolute entrancement and pure and utter awe.

Rest in peace to an absolute legend 🕊️🕊️

Man… I just cannot get enough of these guys…

Now after being introduced to this group by my dad about half a year ago, I’ve been listening to a couple of their songs on repeat over the past few months, those primary two being Sleeper as well as Time Moves Slow, the predecessor being an inclusion on this record. Something about their style has really captivated me ever since my first listen to the band, what with their seamless fusions of many genres, such as jazz, hip-hop, ... read more

While it doesn’t have quite the highs as those from GODSTAINED, I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t absolute peak! The album might possibly sneak into my top 5 of the year ngl, you never know 👀

It’s here! It’s finally here!

This one’s been highly anticipated on my end for a while now. Their album ‘Ants From Up There’ from 2022 was one of my favourite records so far from the decade, and I was super intrigued to see as to how they’d fare after the split up with their lead singer, Isaac Wood. But the singles dropped and damn was I impressed by them. Keeping the same quirkiness that their previous works had, they managed to come up with an entirely ... read more

Jesus Christ… what an experience.

Now before jumping into this one, I had never listened to anything else from Deafheaven before. Yep, not even ‘Sunbather’, their 2013 sophomore LP of which I’d heard tons of great things thrown its way. Because of this, I had little to no idea what to expect with their newest project, ‘Lonely People With Power’. I hadn’t heard any of their singles for it leading up to its release, and I had no prior experience with ... read more

I think it’s been long enough for me to stay quiet on this one.

Over the past few months, there’s a fairly strong chance that you’ve gotten recommended this album by none other than me, Big Ben. Now for many, this recommendation may have seemed very random and out of the ordinary, considering how few ratings it had and how practically unknown Bent was. But all those recommendations were for a reason: to spread awareness of this masterpiece of record. Few albums have ever ... read more

Carti try not to go 30 seconds without mentioning pussy challenge: Difficulty impossible

Where do I even start with Carti, man. As a 13 year old myself, I have encountered a fair share of die-hard Carti listeners over the past couple years. While his fan base can often be… well uh, interesting to say the least, his music has honestly been pretty damn great so far in my books. ‘Whole Lotta Red’ is a super electrifying and unique record, one of my favourites so far from the ... read more

Man… I hate to say it, but this is genuinely some of the most mediocre shit I’ve heard in a while.

Say hello again to your favourite late to the party-er: JB! Or uh, Big Ben now I guess. I am once again days tardy for a new release, hopefully this’ll be the last time 🤞🤞 Apologies as well for the lack of reviews recently; I’ve been quite busy and may or may not have had a slight case of writers block after my Discovery review. But don’t worry, I’ll try ... read more

A legend gone far too soon 😔🕊️

After having listened to his posthumous compilation titled ‘Luv(sic) Hexalogy’ a couple months back, Nujabes has been an artist under my radar ever since. Considering I’m quite a fan of jazz rap (with Tribe Called Quest) as well as Instrumental and Lo-fi Hip Hop (with J Dilla), I was hooked straight away, and right from the very first listen, I was absolutely captivated and frankly stunned; it was an absolutely magical listening ... read more

2000 FOLLOWER SPECIAL

This is by far my longest review yet and will likely remain that way. I’ve been working on this one for about a month now; whether that be due to some severe procrastination or forgetfulness, it’s regardless still been a real passion project of mine as of late, and it would mean the world if you guys were to read it. Anyways, enough of future jb, onto the real review.

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Well… here we are. I’ve been ... read more

As overhated as I thought ‘PROTECT THE CROSS’ was, I’m still pretty glad that Peggy’s veering away from that rap-rock style here as I prefer this style far more. All of a sudden, it seems as if we’re back to prime Peggy; we get given some absolutely tremendously crafted samples and chops as well as some incredibly stellar production, reminiscent of something from his LP! era. All things considered, it’s a huge relief that we’re getting some seriously ... read more

Thank you so much @UltimateLifeFrm for the rec!

Well… that was indeed something!

Being my introduction to black metal, I was very much intrigued coming into this one, as it’s a genre I had heard many great things about, however it was one I was also fairly apprehensive and unsure with considering my lack of knowledge and experience with the broad genre of metal in general. But once getting recommended this one by the user @UltimateLifeFrm (go give him a follow btw), I figured I ... read more

I’m so pissed right now… why does every single new release these past few months have to come out at the worst possible time for me, like it’s either when I’m sleeping or when I’m at school 😭🙏

Also, why is the cover even worse now? I mean it was terrible before, don’t get me wrong, but now it just looks like he’s taking a massive shit.

I’m not really sure if I’ve mentioned this yet in any of my reviews before, but The Weeknd is an ... read more

What the hell did I just hear?!

I have been familiar with the name Jack Stauber for a while now; I’ve stumbled upon a couple of his older YouTube videos and I’ve seen some of those clay sort of animation things he’s made as well. Aside from that though… well, I knew practically nothing about him. And based off his pretty much cultish following, for this album especially, I figured I should give it a shot and see if it was really for me.

But man, is this just one of ... read more