Jeru The Damaja – The Sun Rises In The East

straight copacetic beats rhymes and overall NY badness buy on sight

Aceyalone is a great MC , but IMO not on Jeru's level lyrically. Jeru is a true lyricist mabie not on GZA's level but his wordplay and delivery is almost impeccable, everyone is entitled to their opinionand mine Iis Jeru is a lyricist

Similar to my fellow reviewer, I accidentally stumbled across this one as well, just a few days ago. I had basically forgotten that an MC called Jeru The Damaja had ever existed. It wasn't the name of the artist or the album which had caught my eye, but it was the cover art, with one of the Twin Towers in flames. Oh the irony, and this album is from 1994.
The cover art might depict a projection of what would have happenned to the World Trade Center if the bombing was executed in a manner it was supposed to be.
Leaving all political and sociological aspects aside, I put "The sun rises in the east" on, and what a walk down memory lane it was! Jeru was never a complex lyricst, and comes nowhere near hip hop luminaries such as Alcyone, GZA or the Organized Konfusion duo, but what he has is an impeccable, raw flow, with tough, honest, witty, thoughtful and at times entertaining rhymes which take no prisoners.
Taking his sound to the deepest chambers of New York underground, he raps about the street life (was before it became a washed out cliche), on tracks Da Bichez, You Can't Stop The Prophet and Ain't The Devil Happy he mocks the (back then) upcoming commercialization of the hip hop culture, and obsessions with the thug mentality, AK toting, hoe slapping and what not else.
Jeru is vivid in his descriptions while maintaining a steadily blunt, if not agressive attitude in his delivery. Despite it all, this album wouldn't have half of its charm if the man behind the production wasn't DJ Premier. Simply said, and looking back from modern perspective while keeping his entire production opus in mind, he most probably outdid himself. As much as his jazzy beats and trademark verses consisting of scratched in samples from other artists gained him fame with his main, Gang Starr project, my opinion is that his credentials have sky rocketed once this album hit the streets. His rawest, deepest and most daring beats can be found here, his DJ skills shine to the fullest wherever he applies them, and that is that!
The standout number is naturally the evergreen underground smash anthem Come Clean, with stentorian production vaults - the drum kicks sound as though every kick was accompanied by a drop of water falling from the ceiling on the center of the floor in an isolated, abbandoned warehouse! And those timeless samples from Onyx "heads up 'cause we droppin' some shit!" emphasized with heavy scratching only add to the overall greatness.
I am really glad I found this one. New York's underground hip hop at its finest. Recommended to all lovers of Premier's sound, but especially to fans of early nineties hip hop, who reckon you don't have to toss 20000 monopoly paper bills in the air during your video in order to be a great hip hop artist. Ah, the days when hip hop wasn't strictly divided between MTV teen idols and underground heroes jotting down prophecies in their notepads, dug and stuck so deep under ground barely anybody bothers to go check them out... A pity. This album, however, is everything but! A true classic!

I was digging through my collection and came upon this CD. This is another classic, groundbreaking album.

Jeru lays cleverly crafted conscious lyrics over classic Premier beats. Jeru was already spearheading the movement against pop in rap music, and the ignorance that plagues certain elements of hip-hop culture

My favorites on this one are "Come Clean," "Mind Spray" and "Ain't The Devil Happy."

If you love classic hip-hop, you will love this album.