Jae-P was 19 when Univision Records released his second album,
Esperanza, in late September 2004, which means that the Mexican-American MC was only a child when the best sociopolitical rappers --
Public Enemy,
KRS-One, and
Ice-T, among others -- were at the height of their popularity. But lyrically,
Esperanza is, in many respects, a throwback to a more intellectual era in hip-hop. Recalling some of the intelligent rap albums that came out in the late '80s and early '90s -- albums like
PE's
Fear of a Black Planet and
Boogie Down Productions' By All Means Necessary --
Esperanza has the sort of thoughtfulness that is missing from many of 2004's rap discs. Jae-P doesn't spend all his time rapping about how many gold chains he owns, how many hotties he has seduced or how many thugs he rolls with; instead, the Los Angeles resident encourages cultural pride and wonders what can be done to combat the problems of the inner city -- in other words, Jae-P deals with much of the same subject matter that
PE,
BDP,
Ice-T and
Grandmaster Flash dealt with back in the day. But there is a major difference; while those MCs were reflecting on the socioeconomic struggles of African-Americans, Jae-P is a bilingual rapper with a very Mexican-American perspective. The beats on
Esperanza (which means "Hope" in Spanish) owe a lot to funk and soul, but Jae-P also draws on Latin forms like norteño, cumbia and flamenco. Because
Esperanza is such a sociopolitical album, Jae-P occasionally lightens the lyrical load by throwing in the occasional party jam. But even so, there is no getting around the fact that
Esperanza is -- for the most part -- very serious-minded. It's also a respectable effort demonstrating that even though conscious rap wasn't as plentiful in 2004 as it was in the late '80s/early '90s, it hasn't become extinct just yet. ~ Alex Henderson