Jonwayne’s Rap Album One will be released on the 28th of October on Stones Throw Records.
In around 2008, Jonathan Wayne entered the Los Angeles music scene by way of the scene-defining club Low End Theory. He came up alongside a new generation of hip-hop beatmakers: Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, Kutmah, and Daedelus. Fresh out of high school, Jonwayne jumped in with homemade rap mixtapes and immersed himself in the scene. “It felt like a golden age,” he says, “it was very inspiring.”
A collection of instrumentals named Bowser showed off his production chops in 2011 but it was Jonwayne’s oversized skill on the mic that caught the attention of Peanut Butter Wolf, who signed him to release an album as an MC on Stones Throw Records.
As he wrote and recorded – and rewrote, rerecorded, and edited – his debut rap album, Jonwayne released a series of tapes that were to establish his name as one of the West Coast’s most exciting new rappers. Cassette 1, Cassette 2 and Cassette 3: The Marion Morrison Mixtape were all released on Stones Throw between 2012 and 2013 – all unplanned, the product of an unstoppable creative flow. By now even the tobacco conglomerate Philip Norris began to pay attention to this fast-rising MC, issuing him with a cease-and-desist notice for his cassette packaging, which looked uncannily like a pack of Marlboros. Jon had plenty to say on the matter: “Millions of people from all over the world have contacted me… letting me know how my Cassette has helped them conquer their addiction of giving Philip Morris their money all the time, and I couldn’t be happier.”
That Jonwayne still hadn’t released his first vocal album didn’t stop him picking up accolades. Pitchfork called Cassette 3: The Marion Morrison Mixtape “extraordinarily personal and wholly universal at the same time,” and Spin endorsed his “considerable skills”.
Cassette 3 may have featured Captain Murphy (aka Flying Lotus), Jeremiah Jae, Zeroh and Oliver the 2nd, but the ‘The Come Up Pt. 1’ is the only track on Rap Album One to feature a vocal guest, Scoop DeVille – best known as producer for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, The Game and Snoop Dogg. Scoop also produced two tracks on the record, ‘Black Magic’ and ‘The Come Up Pt. 2’. The rest is pure Jonwayne, from the meandering, jazzy ‘Reflection’ to the contemplative ‘After The Calm’. In fact, there’s more piano than drums on Rap Album one – but it’s all hip-hop.
The double vinyl edition of the album is cut at 45 RPM. This is deliberate: it allows the record to be “chopped and screwed” by playing at 33 1/3. Hearing the test press LP for the first time, Jon said, “I’m satisfied.”
