DC to Bmore: Lace Berriez & Jumbled Join Forces for 90's Boom-Bap-leaning YOU BEST NOT MISS EP (Harford & Reckord Tapes)

Lace Berriez is an emcee and producer hailing from the Northeast quadrant of Washington, DC. For musical inspiration, he readily draws from Soul, R&B, Funk, Jazz, and of course, DC-rooted Go-Go. Since 2017, Lace has self-released a staggering 5 albums and EP's, as well as countless stand-alone singles, on his own Bandcamp page. Lace Berriez's latest 7-track EP, YOU BEST NOT MISS, was produced by Baltimore-based producer and The Witzard mainstay John Bachman AKA "DJ" Jumbled. "Growing frustrated with the slow pace of return projects, Jumbled reached out to Twitter saying he needed rappers to feed beats to; Lace Berriez Responded and the email exchanges began," reads Lace & Jumbled's EP press release. Although, they've only met in-person once at a 2016 beat event called DATBEET #2, Jumbled & Lace Berriez stayed in touch online and ultimately, created this Funky little Boom-Bap-leaning EP together. It appears as though a number of music videos from the project should be coming fairly soon, as well.


Stylistically, YOU BEST NOT MISS draws from Jumbled's as-yet-to-be-fully-realized "Green Room phase," as well as 90's Boom-Bap, buttery smooth string and Soul samples, obscure vocal samples, and even Buffalo-bred Jazz-Fusion band Spyro Gyra. However, YOU BEST NOT MISS, overall, is reminiscent of Wu-Tang Clan, early Action Bronson, and Madlib & MF DOOM's MADVILLAINY's cartoony bounce; plus, if Jumbled & Lace Berriez were going for a 90's Boom-Bap-evoking sound, that's definitely been achieved here! In a year chock-full of EP's—or EP touted as full-length "albums" and vice versa—Lace Berriez & Jumbled's YOU BEST NOT MISS EP is definitely one of the strongest examples of an Extended Play, in my humble opinion. It appears as though Lace & Jumbled were already aware of this, though, as their EP press release reads in part: "the cover art was created by Jim Ventosa, in an effort to place Lace Berriez near the top of the emcee "deck" in DC." YOU BEST NOT MISS is currently available to stream or download from Lace Berriez's Bandcamp page. Limited edition cassette tapes are coming soon on Jumbled's own Harford & Reckord Tapes.