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:::Music Review:::
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Lyfe Jennings
by William Ashanti Hobbs
author and co-owner of Meroen Press
December 2004
This Music Review is sponsored by:
1102 S. Adams St., ste.#5 - Tallahassee, FL 32301
850.222.6940 - www.flavamusic.net
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This Music Review is
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"Former choirboy turned stick up kid makes good after
prison stint…"
That could have been the title of any article after
Chester "Lyfe" Jennings got out of prison with guitar
in hand and became a 5 time winner at the world famous
Apollo Theatre talent contests. Though he had brought
the house down in NY, it was a gamble as to whether
his unglamorous tales his crooked past and issues
would connect with the rest of us. Not that he gives a
damn. In fact, Jennings puts past mistakes on blast
from the jump by using his assigned prison number for
the album title (LYFE 268-192).
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Although looking like the type of New York thug that
hops turnstiles to the subway and pisses on the walls
of buildings, Jennings surprises you immediately with
a scratchy, old-man’s voice even grittier than Anthony
Hamilton, yet not as bear-like as Johnny Gill’s
overworked growl. His heartfelt lyrics are
unapologetically couched in the urban struggle, yet is
not stuck in the giddy hedonism of today’s video
clips. Jennings is into the awkward, but unavoidable
changes that a man with a street hustle goes through
when they take the opportunity to grow up and move on.
Jennings is not concerned with faking like he’s
untouchable, or that anybody else who doesn’t feel him
is a hater or whether or not every woman is checking
for him. With this man, the quiet girl who is stays
true to her man even after his ghetto fame is gone is
the one who gets the props in "Must Be Nice":
"Even when your hustling days are gone
She'll be by your side still holding on
Even when those 20's stop spinning
and all those gold-digging women disappear
she'll still be here"
The spoken word Jennings infuses between the songs
weaves the songs together. Though it does not execute
as well as it should at different points, it does
offer a concept to the CD that most contemporaries
lack. Here, Jennings discovers that same woman really
is in his heart with "The Way I Feel About You."
The Toledo, Ohio native then goes into facing the fact
that the woman has children. This brings you to one of
the most poignant songs of CD simply titled "She Got
Kids." This is where Jennings shows publicist-coached
studio gangstas what the "keep it real" motto is all
about. Jennings voices some of the most unpopular
thoughts that any man would consider in such a
relationship but, due to persecution, would be
considered callous and selfish to admit to. His candor
makes you want to laugh out nervously from it making
you uncomfortable. Be it being afraid to go to the
local clinic to get a veneral disease treated for fear
of embarrassing attention or being so broke he had to
cook food with lighters, he can’t be denied. If you
conquer your nervousness and the NTND (no this n***a
didn’t!) reflex, you will get a glimpse of what a man
stripped of all pretense sounds like. Even if you
can’t feel Jennings’ quiet storm-styled music, you’ll
listen intently to his coming to terms with not
wanting the woman to be with anyone but himself with
"I Can't" to the jarring insights of possible
scenarios of infidelity in "Hypothetically." You’ll
cue and recue just to hear how much the private you
has in common with this man as he goes into dirty well
of truth.
Due to Jennings’ lack of profanity (one curse word in
the whole album), he can reach everyone at the dinner
table and set off conversations that are left unsaid
to sit heavy in too many hearts. His outlook on what
he’s been through is commendable; Even the breakup
with the woman has hope in it. Ironically, Jennings
samples the Four Tops' "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I
Got)" for the breakup song, entitled "Smile."
"Greedy" is the woman going bitter over the breakup and after
him with exaggerated child support claims, thus
leading him to struggle for quick cash in "Stick Up
Kid", which gets him arrested. The next three songs
revolve around his looking giving up a life of crime
and trying to get right with God only to be dissed by
the holier than thou. It is the most powerful critique
of the black church and spirituality by hip
hop-influenced R&B that I can remember. Jennings is
proof to artists that writing songs about things that
happen outside of a club, mall or bedroom (for
starters) even to the point of risking "baller"
status, can be an image risk only for those with real
kahunas. Jennings may be too real to ever be wildly
famous. In the words of poet W.H. Auden, "The most
important truths are likely to be those which...
society at that time least wants to hear." This is the
soundtrack to such truths.
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