While I am not a huge hip hop fan I do have my favorites but CSJQ isn’t one of them. Consisting of Clayton Savage and JayQuan the duo’s latest release, the Life, seems to be stuck in a time warp, invoking a late 80’s hip hop sound that occasionally pushes the envelope to sound more current. Unfortunately the album never quite reaches that level, relying instead on old school flow delivery and a lyrical presence that feels unbalanced.

First off the album runs five tracks but two of those tracks are clean and explicate versions of the same song, with that being said I’d slot this under EP territory. Said song, F.U.N., starts the album off on a wrong foot right away. A testosterone filled hate letter to, well, haters, but it hangs to much on preaching how the duo could care less while spending the entire track talking about haters like they do.

The albums title track follows and somehow manages to carry on where the opening track ended. JayQuan is still rapping about coming up and how all the haters can’t phase him. His flow does reach a nice peak in this track and Clayton puts together a nice beat for JayQuan to flow off of but in the end its just more of the same.

Track 3 is the stand out track on the album and one that I put on loop for a bit. The track is an homage to a broken heart, the beats enter a dark area, and the lyrical is powerful and delivered with conviction. One of the most current sounding track on the entire album as well.

Beautiful Girls is the next more current track on the album and reaches club status as it moves along with a high dance beat but the lyrics to the song are a bit half and half. JayQuan raps about beautiful girls coming up into the club then slips off into some rap about how the girl he’s talking to is beautiful so they should ride back to his place and have sex, because she’s beautiful. Its an unfortunately typical area that some rappers go to which leaves the overall feel of the track a bit meh. While the album does have some decent tracks I’ll have to pass on it. As always final judgment is yours.