Jeru the Damaja Presents Supahuman Klik - Heroz4Hire (September 7, 1999)

Jeru the Damaja's second solo album, Wrath Of The Math, was met with critical acclaim but, ultimately, poorer sales figures than his classic (yeah, I said it) debut, The Sun Rises In The East, which is ironic, as Wrath Of The Math contained Jeru's most blatant stab at radio and MTV airplay ever with "Ya Playin' Yaself", a song that still worked, despite itself. However, after recording that disc, Jeru and his main producer, DJ Premier of Gangstarr and founding member of the Gangstarr Foundation, had a falling out: details floating around on the Interweb describe everything from financial fuckings-over to Primo sleeping with Jeru's sister, whom I cannot actually verify existence.

Regardless of the facts, Jeru broke apart from the crew that essentially raised him from a young pup, and decided to venture out on his own. (The real winner of this situation was neither Jeru nor Primo: it was Jeru's former errand boy Afu-Ra, who would capitalize on the opening to become a newer and improved Jeru with his solo debut, The Body Of The Life Force.) He created his own label, Knowsavage Records, and quietly recorded his third album, Heroz4Hire, which was released in 1999.

Heroz4Hire features wall-to-wall production from Jeru the Damaja himself, a far cry from the usual Primo compositions audiences were used to. Jeru also shares top billing this go round with a female rapper named Miz Marvel, who for all I know was Jeru's former guidance counselor or aunt or something: I'm personally still trying to figure out how she ended up on the album. Among other things I'm still trying to figure out: why the album is credited as Jeru the Damaga Presents Supahuman Klik, when there are only two rappers in the fucking "klik". But I digress.

Heroz4Hire was met with overly positive reactions, primarily from critics (there weren't many bloggers back in 1999) who refused to believe that Jeru the Damaja could suck horribly on a record. However, the tide soon turned against the project: bad word of mouth made its way around the Interweb, and its sales faltered. To date, Heroz4Hire is the only album that Knowsavage Records has ever released, and probably for good reason.

Let's find out why.

1. SUPAHUMAN THEME
Fucking lame. That's all I got.

2. GREAT SOLAR STANCE
This isn't bad. Jeru sounds like his old self over his own beat. It's nowhere close to the collaborative work he's done with Primo, but this is a decent substitute. Maybe this listen won't be as bad as I remembered.

3. VERBAL BATTLE (FEAT MIZ MARVEL)
Oh wait, no, I was wrong: the album has already gone downhill. There are many, many problems with this song. For starters, Jeru hands the microphone to Miz Marvel, a female rapper I had never heard of prior to Heroz4Hire and haven't heard from since, for a solo song, which is simply a bad move due to the fact that people bought what they believed to be a Jeru album. Secondly, Miz Marvel fails to impress on this track, which isn't inherently bad, but once again, people thought they bought a Jeru album. Finally, the song is called "Verbal Battle" but it's a Miz Marvel solo: there is no verbal battle of any sort to speak of. Sigh.

4. BITCHEZ WIT DIKZ (FEAT MIZ MARVEL & LIL' DAP)
Um...okay. Not a song about pre-op transsexuals, as I had expected, but a track about guys that act like bitches, which may be closer to what you were expecting. Just hearing the chorus is enough to make you want to hit the skip button. However, it's good to see that Jeru hasn't cut all of his ties to the Gangstarr Foundation, even if it is only Lil' Dap (from Group Home).

5. SEINFELD
The really sad aspect of this disc so far are the beats: it's obvious that Jeru tried his best to sound like the nineteenth coming of DJ Premier, but something got fucked up along the way. It doesn't help that, on this song especially, he seems to be entirely cognizant to the fact that the beat is lacking, making this song ostensibly about "nothing" even more meaningless.

6. RENEGADE SLAVE
Seriously, the fact that Jeru was brash enough to incorporate a quick sample from one of his Primo-produced tracks in the hook (in a Primo-esque style) is less of a loving flashback and more like a fucking slap in the face to the fans.

7. PRESHA
No, thank you.

8. SUPERHUMANZ N LUV (INTERLUDE)
You gotta be fucking kidding me. Also, if you're going to go through the trouble to misspell the word "superhumans", at least be consistent throughout the album, motherfucker.

9. ANOTHA VICTIM (FEAT MIZ MARVEL)
Another Miz Marvel solo track, although on this she sounds much better. However, her final verse fades out before the song is finished, and my two readers know how much I love that shit.

10. BILLIE JEAN (SAFE SEX)
"Billie Jean" is the best Michael Jackson song that he will ever create. Ever. (Disagree? You can comment below, but deep down, you know I'm right.) I'm not even a fan of the "alleged" (note the quotation marks) child molester, but "Billie Jean" and Thriller are my shit. But that track makes for a strange starting point of a rap song. Jeru is obviously just fucking around on this track, but since he's never really branched out like this before, it's not bad. For what it is, anyway.

11. BLAK LUV
Meh.

12. WHAT A DAY
This is actually not bad, even if Jeru gets a bit preachy while informing listeners of what he thinks his perfect day would be like. And by "a bit", I mean, of course "really fucking preachy". This is Jeru we're talking about, folks.

13. MIZ MARVEL (FEAT MIZ MARVEL)
Um, seriously, enough with the solo songs already!

14. 99 PA CENT
To my knowledge, this was the only actual single from Heroz4Hire. The beat is pretty good, and Jeru sounds as decent as ever, even if the lyrics are essentially one long potshot at his former partners Guru and DJ Premier. (But he's not bitter.) While this song is really good, it's too little, too late.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Heroz4Hire is a fucking mess. Jeru seems confused: he wants to prove to the hip hop masses that he can make it without Primo's help, but he then goes out of his way to create instrumentals that sound like they could have come from Primo on a sick day. He also defers to guests more often than he ever has on his own record, and the primary co-star, Miz Marvel, is clearly not the Ghostface Killah to Jeru's Raekwon: she isn't really talented enough to carry entire songs by herself. (Perhaps if she just popped up in cameo spots, we wouldn't be having this discussion.) Here's the rub, though: even though I personally feel that Jeru the Damaja will never ever ever top the work that he's done with DJ Premier, because that shit is fucking classic, I still think that he's good enough to proceed in his career without the brand-name help. Just not on this album.

BUY OR BURN? I can't think of any reason why you would need to do either one. This disc just made me angry. I'm going to simply pretend that Jeru gave up rapping after Wrath Of The Math to take on an activist role, and it would be best if you did the same.

BEST TRACKS: "99 Pa Cent"; "Great Solar Stance"

-Max

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