Hip hop is rather unique in the way that it gives a lot of people a voice. Due to its openness, it's possible for people to speak their mind, without being shackled by the usual or limited to issues like love topics. A lot of the poetism, the rebelism, and the self healing that used to be found in folk, in hippie music, or in political rock, is now present in hip hop, if not to even say is very much part of the foundation on which this music has been built. So for people that want to address issues, there surely still are other genres, but with the bigger space that rapped rhymes allow, as opposed to sung verses, it's only natural that a lot of the thinkers of today turn to hip hop to express what they want to say.

This is very much the case with Jamil Mustafa, who calls his album "When Poets Shout", and who intends to talk to us, share his views and give us something of what has him turn, continue or struggle. And that's a hard task that he imposes on himself, because mere funny-kid entertainment does not expose that much of oneself, as well as, makes it easier to keep the audience listening. Hence if you chose to do more than that, and you chose to talk about personal things, then you yourself need to be someone interesting, to be able to say interesting things. And your thoughts must be so progressed, that they go beyond every person problems and sadnesses. Cause things every one goes through, as well as issues too many other people have talked about before, will be hard tempted to keep us listening. And even taking this further: The beats need to be good too, or the lyrics will lose us even quicker.

Needless to say, Jamil fights a battle that can only be won when accepting many small losses on the way to the final victory. And these small losses are appearing as tracks, that while nothing disgusting, are still giving us a hard time to fully get with them. And on here much of that is also due to the beats, that should be like a finger tip of sugar in the bitter tea, that we have to swallow though to get healthy again. So while Pajamaz is able to come with a couple of dope beats, like the happy "The Unprecedented", the melancholic "When Poets Shout", the pleased sunshine vibe of "Figures Of Speech", the struggling "The Pulse" and smooth and excellent "The Circle" (featuring Bo Bonner, Brent Iverson and Mosys), the rest however, is often enough solid, but sometimes also rather unimpressive. What still deserves acknowledgment though, is that the tracks are not all riding the same formula, but differ in style and flavor.

And well lyrically we get everything that you expect from the writings that have opened up this review (with a typical cut being "High Resolution"), expressing himself in a skillful (and often actually interesting) manner. Further we also get the what drives him on "Motivation", the representing on the mic / industry / genre talk on "One Man One Mic", or the other people dissing "I Don't Like You". However, not everything is good: Jamil can be considered to be a honest emcee who speaks from the heart, but he's not the best emcee that ever grasped a mic. Mainly because Jamil's not the most impressive when it comes to pure style. What only furthers the straight forwardness of him letting us enter his mind, and allowing us to learn from the things he sees and thinks about. And if that can be of interest to you, you should check out this album.