Rich Jones is an MC with a perfect MidWest vibe. Maybe somebody won't think it's cool that I said that. Maybe they think the MidWest corny. Well, they're wrong for feeling that way. We do grow a lot of corn out here, but that's beside the point. What I mean, is that as a lifelong MidWestern, I feel like I know this guy well. Like personally- even though we've only technically met once. He's a proud creature of his environment, a part of the country that appreciates earnestness, respect, grind, and personableness. As a result of coming up here, he's a passionate, clear-spoken dude, with an appreciation of history and the people who helped him flourish over the years, and this bares out on his latest LP Smoke Detector. The album has this incredibly warm and shaggy feel to it, cultivated in part through producer Iceberg Theory's deliciously '70s selections- recreating lounge, yacht rock, and disco beats, not as they were, but as you remember them from the plush rumpus rooms and finished basements your parent's friends kept well into the '00s- stocked with ancient liquor bottles, lined with sunken couches, and inhabited by one, impractically large, wood-bodied record players as their centerpiece. Out of this bouillon of intoxicating and tactile reminiscence, Rich's calm, almost sing-songy cadence rises like a white dove above the clap of a surly tempest. Elevated and without a care. You might mistake him for being bulletproof in this state, but it's actually your own conscience that prevents you from doing harm to something so pure. Put down your guns and stretch out your hands. Pray you can rise to his level. When Rich raps, his delivery is coolheaded and confident, slipping through the gaps that form between a tightlipped grin and a crooked smile, polishing and clawing out juicy bits and profound afterthoughts like a toothpick tip running through a gum-line after a pricey steak dinner- the smell of blood on his breath and sense of satisfaction in the air. He shares in this feast with old heads and perpetually hungry MCs like the refined mutant maestro Curly Castro and Defcee with his deep, steady rowing rhythm and flow, as well as irrepressible upstarts like the down-to-earth enigma, Semiratruth. I'm glad he elected to call this record Smoke Detector, because if you follow your ears, you'll find that there is not a single track that is not red hot!
