Who is Maxi Jazz?

Only one of the most underrated MC's in history. Maybe it's because he's not American. Maybe it's because his lyrics are above most people's heads. Here's a guy who has 8 albums under his belt and yet he makes no top ten of all time. Another Gemini Enigma. Born in 1957 in Brixton, England (my favorite English accent) he formed his first group The Soul Food Cafe in 1989.They toured a bit, but it never gave him the notoriety he deserved.

Do you think it's easy being an articulate rapper interested in techno?


this morbid classic is called Killers Lullaby

All these so called "hip hop scholars" leave Maxi Jazz to maybe possibly footnotes. How? Does a techno beat make somthing not hip hop? I can think of a few artists today that defy that... Ludacris. Drake. Nikki Minaj. And in comparison, their Black techno is garbage.

Tarantula:

Deep in the shadows of your deepest secrets

I sleep next to the precepts you hold most dear

Your heart is in my province hour upon hour

I shiver when you feel the cold,

Everything you say I hear

Like a bomb and its fuse,

We bring bright light

But I could be a devil to you

I could bite like a tarantula

Right through the skin

And leave my poison dripping

Deliciously unsuspecting

Protecting you from all harm

Except perhaps from these arms

That hold you

His voice is perfect.

Like if he called you in the middle of the night you'd probably agree to hide him perfect. 

My introduction to Maxi Jazz was the song God is a DJ 

This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
It's a natural grace
Of watching young life shape
It's in minor keys
Solutions and remedies
Enemies becoming friends
When bitterness ends
This is my church (x3)
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
It's in the world I become
Contained in the hum
Between voice and drum
It's in the change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
For tonight
God is a DJ
God is a DJ
This is my church (x3)

When I came upon the album Sunday 8pm by Faithless, I had never heard anything like it before then. It was 1998 and I used to cut school on Tuesdays when new music came out at Virgin Megastore in San Francisco. I could stay on the headphones all day because they got all the imports and random music. I was stuck in a world between something like electronic hip hop (drum & bass dubstep type) and just branching out in to roots rock. I remember listening to this for the first time really truly captivated by it. Maxi Jazz opens this album in the second song, Bring My Family Back.

Beg you listen me, don't be kissin me til I'm done
unsung champion, a reason like seasoning ah
pepper your thoughts with spice,
and entice you to a space where I dwell with bass players and layers are loops
think what I think with my prayers its nice
my world is everything I've become
contained in the hum between voice and drum
I'm coming from the same place I'm a still running from
but even sitting in the garden one can still get stung

(*the garden is the title of the first song on the album)

 I also have a soft spot or car references, and Maxi Jazz is into import racing. This particular song is so out of pocket: She's My Baby

I'm a slave to your outrage
Rocket rocks stiff shocks and a roll cage
Color-coded alloys, much noise, spoilers are poised
Exhaust note to make me wait for old age
Yes yes. Who got the keys to my RS
We goin' on a road test, hit the M4 and head west
Forever impressed with the sound of my two-liter
We cover ground, engine singin' like Anita Baker
And if I take a corner too quick you get sick, when I do my handbrake
trick
Watch me ride, me broadside's wide like a battleship
Side slip, push, only hip, stick it in gear and give the gas a flip
It never failed to bring a grin to the limb
Baby's equipped
me and she gone clear
I got quick rack reduction on my understeer
I been fairly and squarely described as hairy
People say my baby is scary
Look, you pays your money and you takes your choice
I just love to hear my baby's voice
She's my baby

Now granted some of the instrumentals are out of my comfortable sound range, but in a way I rather enjoy that part. I have to remember I'm listening to English music, and that takes me out of my element. I'd be interested if he'd work in other forms of music outside of Faithless. Would love to hear him on this side of the pond even if it was with Kanye West (which actually if he produced it would be SO dope). So I'm making my case why Maxi Jazz should be on your list of preferred MC's. At least poets.

As for who he is as a person, there's not a lot of that information out there. I will try to get that. In the mean time I'm pretty sure he wants you to know he's Buddhist and a huge Eagles fan (Crystal Palace Football Club).

And yeah I only referenced one album, but the point was you are supposed to go do your homework (not just take my word for it ;)