By: Joseph VanBuren
Rating: 3/11

Underground artists of any genre get a lot of leeway when it comes to the production and delivery of their tracks. Some fans even prefer a raw and slightly sloppy performance, cutting the artist some slack in the knowledge that they are truly underground or indie. That being considered, Bronx emcee Jarel needs a lot of work. He seems to be aiming for commercial mainstream status; between his painfully repetitious lyrics and his blatant thievery of the southern style, he might actually show potential in this area. But as is, his demo would have to be cleaned up in a major way before being submitted to a major label. Possibly because he chooses to rap in an accent other than his own, Jarel’s delivery is extremely awkward and often not in sync with the rhythm. The irony is that most of his lyrics consist of bragging, but he performs them with obvious uncertainty. To be fair, Jarel does occasionally end up with a song that isn’t completely unbearable. The semi-personal “By Myself” is carried by a banging background track, and “Do What We Do” has a nice summertime groove to it. Most of the other tracks are just a collection of unoriginal beats and cliché lyrics. With today’s mainstream music in mind, it’s almost hard to say if Jarel’s generic style and poor delivery would hurt or help him in his battle for the big time. But the majority of underground fans would probably find it difficult to sit through an entire song, even (maybe especially) hardcore hip-hop heads.