Wax On

The album I wanted to look at today is from a YouTube made artist. I feel like that carries a little bit of a negative connotation especially when talking about musicians but he had the talent and just wasn't interested in signing to a label until now. He started with releasing freestyles of other people's instrumentals while hanging out in Baltimore his most famous being the "New Crack" video. Once he got some recognition he started essentially working for YouTube to build his online fan base and in 2009 released Liquid Courage (2008) with east coast producer EOM. Then Wax released Clockwise (2010) with west coast battle rapper Dumbfoundead. Now only a year later he has released his new mix tape Scrublife (2011).  The mix tape is not only his first full length solo mix tape but is essentially a part of his signing party with Def Jam Recordings.

Wax doesn't get to far from what he has always done on all of his albums to date. Which on this mix tape is not a bad thing. I'm glad he put the "New Crack" free style (in celebration of over a million views), "Red", and "Music and Liquor" a track from "Liquid Courage ( on the album in order to stay connected to his YouTube roots. The beats are all mostly still produced by EOM. This means that the mix tape has that smooth jazz and instrumental sound with cool guitar riffs and piano melodies on tracks like "Dispensary Girl" and "Shoo Ba Doop" hence the name Elements of Music aka EOM.

The lyrical content is exactly what you would expect on a mix tape called Scrublife (2011) with goofy lyrics about partying and drinking too much beer. Though Wax has shown is ability to write seriously and actually putting thought into a song he's recording rather than goofy freestyles on tracks like "Music and Liquor", "Don't Need", and "Limousine". Though i must admit that I am glad that EOM is on this record after listening to "Everything" a track that was produced by Wax. Don't get me wrong it is different and refreshing break from the cool jazz but I don't know how a full album of it would be. All in all a enjoyable mix tape worth at least a listen. Plus, its free and free music is my favorite kind of music. <3

http://www.djbooth.net/index/mixtapes/entry/wax-scrublife-mixtape/

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