It's honestly, not often we, here at The Witzard, feature music that you (the listener) can't hear for yourself... but we figured we would give it a-go, before the year's up! I actually, first heard about Brooklyn-based emcee and producer James "J57" Victor Heinz's latest effort, LP2 through this very Tweet from @HomeboySandman: "New sh*t from Tha God available for one week only better peep that stat." It Re-Tweeted a previous statement from @j57 himself, which read, " J57 LP2 is out now, for 1 week. You can only get [a copy] via J57MUSIC.com, before it's gone. Enjoy!" Acting fast, as it would only be available from December 8-15th, I reached out to J57 directly and was soon able to procure a copy of LP2, sub-titled WE CAN BE KINGS. from the man himself. Whether you've been fortunate enough to hear LP2 or not, I'm just gonna jump right into it now... LP2 is the follow-up to J57's 2016 limited-release album, I'm The J57, which was only released on streaming sites with 100% of the proceeds from his I'm The J57 Deluxe Edition CD's (2017) donated to The Flint Water Crisis. However, LP2 was released in an even more limited fashion and will only be available from J57MUSIC.com/Bandcamp for the next few days, although, it sounds like J57 plans to properly re-release the album at some point during 2019-20. LP2 is J57's second limited-release, his fourth overall as a solo emcee, and first project he's fully produced in its entirety.


"It's a journey inside my mind and it really showcases my eclectic ear, which will make more sense to everyone in 2019 & 2020 when more of the non- Hip-Hop stuff I'm creating comes out," J57 exclusively told The Witzard within a string of Twitter-sent messages. LP2: WE CAN BE KINGS. features, as J57 puts it, his "friends and family," which includes Katian, The Audible Doctor, Jamo Gang ( Ras Kass & El Gant,) Devin Malek, DeeJay Element, Tenacity, Choosey, Akie Bermiss of Lake Street Dive, Sid "#0" Wilson AKA DJ Starscream of Slipknot, Jay Jennings of Snarky Puppy, Aerika Monique, Jordan Quin, Matt Stamm of MAK3RS, Tiffany Topol of Goldie Haunt, and Eliot Glazer. As J57 previously alluded, LP2 is a full-on Hip-Hop/Boom-Bap record with sonic allusions to a wide range of eclectic styles and largely, genre-eschewing sounds. A handful of LP2's tracks—namely, "Track 1" AKA "Live Your Life/I-75," "Track 2" AKA "Skywalk/Geminarius," "Track 4" AKA "Peter Venkman/Silhouettes," and "Track 5" AKA "Doc Brown/Glory"—are, actually, split up into two "separate" tracks, so for $11.57, you're really getting 15 tracks for the price of 11! J57 has, also, intricately woven a number of vocal samples and lyrical allusions to Rick Flair, The Goonies, Back to The Future, Seinfeld, and more throughout LP2. Again, J57's LP2: WE CAN BE KINGS. is only available for download directly from J57MUSIC.com for TWO MORE days, until Saturday, December 15th and it's definitely worth $11.57!