JAM YOUNG & SKINNY BONEZ THA GODFATHA — "IT WAS WRITTEN IN POLO" [EP]

 

The liner notes describe it directly: five tracks meant to be played in the streets of New York and the Netherlands alike. Jam Young, a Queens MC whose flow is built on the kind of melodic hook construction and bar-to-bar variation that made late 1990s and early 2000s East Coast rap replayable, brings exactly that energy to Skinny Bonez Tha Godfatha's production — hard-hitting drums paying deliberate homage to the golden era without simply copying it. Skinny Bonez, the Dutch producer and founder of Voodoo Docterz who has built a discography of cross-Atlantic collaborations with Queens veterans including 40-40, brings a production sensibility that is European in precision and American in feel. Features from Britt of the Netherlands and Lex Rush from Queens provide contrast. Cutsupreme handles the scratches. The title references the polo shirt as cultural signifier — Queens hip-hop iconography, specifically — which means the album knows exactly who it's talking to.