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EVENTS
The Pro Letarians
RnB/Hip Hop | Tuesday 10th July 2012 | Osh
While most of their college classmates were probably busy drinking or sleeping off their hangovers, Jupiter Jim and J.O., who make up hip hop duo The Pro Letarians, were busy cooking up their own kind of fun in between studying at Indiana University. They say the friends you make at university are the friends you make for life, and in their case this partnership could prove to be a lot more special. With the former providing the flow and the latter on production, they have already between them produced two mixtapes since forming just last year.
With the recent wave of young, hip hop talent building recognition via the Internet, the music industry is no stranger to new, underground artists who are being hoisted onto a pedestal by their devoted fan base as the saviours of hip hop, here to rescue us from carbon copy beats and generic raps about money, drink and drugs. This is an ethos reflected not only in their music – with Jupiter Jim suggesting on one track, “Evolution hip hop, I’m the missing link” – but in their name. ‘Proletarian’ refers to working class people with little or no property, corresponding perfectly with the way they have built up their own fan base from nothing. Why the idea of splitting the word in two? “It’s a play on how we want to be pro one day”, explains J.O in an early YouTube video broadcast from their dorm room. Adds Jupiter Jim, “And it looks super cool”.
Their claim to a piece of the metaphorical throne may actually stand up. There are no tell-tale signs of amateur production to be found on Hello Forever, only infectious beats which hit home instantly rather than needing to grow on you. J.O.’s jazzy vibes take some of the tracks to potential summer anthem status (watch ‘Good Weather’), and wily use of sampling from the Beatles to Florence + the Machine adds to their sound, side-stepping the danger of making it sound less original. Jupiter Jim’s flow has been paralleled with Kanye (same sort of style, both from Chicago) but he avoids getting lost in the comparisons by finding his own speech and rapping about things relevant to them. And he does it well.
The first single, Till We Fall (feat. G-Scott), from their upcoming project, Not All of Me Shall Die, will be released at the end of July.
@TheProLetarians
Written by Angie Moneke @angiejudeLDN
