Y-Love: This Is Babylon

Y-Love: This Is Babylon I don't recall the last time a marketing campaign appealed to me quite as much as Y-Love's. The first line of his bio, which is subsequently used on all his promo material, says "Y-Love is like Talib Kweli and Saul Williams in a yarmulke".` The reason I like the description so much is because it would be easy to say "Y-Love has opened for Matisyahu" and try and sell him that way. Long time readers know how much I despise Matisyahu and trust me, Y-Love sounds nothing like Matisyahu. Born to Black and Puerto Rican parents, Y-Love converted to Orthodox Judiasm at a very young age. Y-Love's style is constant and steady stream of rhymes. His voice reminds me a little of Mos Def, his lyrics remind me of a little tamer Immortal Technique. He is obviously not as skilled a rapper as Big Boi or Jay-Z but he finds other ways to impress the listener. He occasionally throws in Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and Latin into his rhymes. It's not over powering and it doesn't sound like he's trying to sound smarter than the listener, which is tough. In the end, I feel like there are a few flaws in Y-Love's game. First is his production. All of his production sounds the same to me. It's all a steady beat with some synthesizer. With Y-Love's very steady style, it almost gets boring after a little while. The second flaw I see is that Y-Love seems incapable of writing a catchy chorus. I'm not looking for pure pop, but even rappers like the Game who do the hook themselves manage to make it catchy. After I finished listening to Y-Love's album, nothing stood out in my mind. His lyrical content is strong, but without a stand out track or a hook to take away from the album it ends up fuzzy in my mind. Rating: 6.1/10 MP3: Y-Love "Keep the Party Divine"