Wow! This is an incredible debut solo album by Juice Aleem who won’t be unknown for much longer, this is Mercury Prize winning material!

Well, Dizzee seems to back on form but this is the raw sh!t. Who produced this? This is hip-hop how it should be with a thunderous baseline, all praise Juice Aleem.

Juice, sets out his stall on the first track ‘First Lesson’ is as Jerusalaam Come from the dark side with a rootical message of 70s reggae. Old skool as profanity warnings prevail but you can’t help feel joy as ‘The Fallen’ is proper hip-hop and ‘Who Is He’ (a battle with Tomz and Blackitude) is hip-hop-electro-dub. That’s so cool and then ‘Straight Out Of BC’ featuring Cipher Jewels and Blackitude (again) has there’s that Uncle Roots Manuva influence about it; no real surprise as Aleem produced ‘Babylon Medicine’ on Roots’ Awfully Deep album and is part of the Lotek Hi-Fi Crew.

But it’s not all one style as he goes dubsteppin’ on ‘Rock My Hologram’ al a sci-fi Missy Elliot, does he know who he is? And for the ladies, Afua joins in on some R&B urban.

Some killer lines on ‘KunteKinTeTarDiss’ showing that he’s got a dry sense of humour - the Juice Aleem is upon ya and he’s heavy! Even overweight, he’s hits so many targets; Kunte KinTe would be proud.

‘You Shut The ____ Up’ keeps up the Juice assault as if you’ve not got it by now, you never will. And oddly enough, I’ve been thinking Wu-Tang Clan and up pops ‘The Killer’s Tears’ which is Shaolin based

Why haven’t I heard this of Peterson’s show? This album is more Salaam than Jeru, but I’d say Juice Aleem is the future. All of a sudden, Big Dada are filling up the hip-hop boxes, with Roots Manuva (modern classic), Speech Debelle (upstart female EMO and 2009 Mercury nominee; big congrats on that one!), TY (last heard on World Service tribute to Michael Jackson but generally ‘missing’) and Juice Aleem (maverick leftfield genius).

Like he says, “let me do my thing…..’cos I’m your MC” but prepare yourself for the spine tinglin’ of ‘Sang Real’ and the awesome DJ A La Fu bonus track. Love this album.

Reviewed: Juice Aleem - Jerusalaam Come (Big Dada) Cat. No. BDCD147 Release date: 3rd August 2009
Tracklisting
1. First Lesson (3:44)
2. Straight Out Of BC (4:17)
3. The Fallen [Gen. 15.13] (4:00)
4. Who Is He (2:46)
5. Rock My Hologram (4:16)
6. U4Mi feat. Afua (3:27)
7. KunteKinTeTarDiss (4:25)
8. Higher Higher (3:42)
9. You Shut The ____ Up (4:05)
10. The Killer’s Tears (3:56)
11. Church Of Rock (3:15)
12. Blues Block Party (2:10)
13. Sang Real (3:55)
Bonus Track:
14. Tings Get Heat Up (2:09)

Links:
www.myspace.com/jerusalaam
www.myspace.com/newfleshcru
www.bigdada.com