The Sun Rises In The East

Listened to this album while eating humus and carrot sticks on the deck in the sun. Surprising good listening for when you're eating humus and carrot sticks on the deck in the sun.

It's hard to beat when both a rapper and a producer are at the top of their game. If I was Guru in 1994, I'd be lowkey pissed, because DJ Premier provides an insane set of beats for this album, and the Damaja more than lives up to his end of the deal. It's dated in the ways most of the era's best boom bap is—the requisite homophobia pops up in Come Clean and "dealin' with bitches is the same old song" in more ways than Jeru likely intends—but otherwise it performs an excellent lyrical balancing act: rugged yet conscious (without feeling overly preachy), delivered in a cadence that would hold you at gunpoint if it wasn't so tired with the gangster act. It even manages to have a bit of fun, with Jeru's spin on Redman-esque superhero storytelling being too corny to take seriously yet too entertaining to dismiss. It's not too shocking that an album like this would land under the radar compared to the Ready to Die and Illmatic crime rhymes that it rebukes, but it stands alongside them as a prime example of NYC hip-hop at its finest. Key Tracks: Mental Stamina, You Can't Stop the Prophet, My Mind Spray

An underground classic that got lost in the mainstream due to its proximity to other major releases, notably Illmatic. A lot of it didn't age particularly well, but there's some cleverness in the beats (Come Clean) and the lyrics (You Can't Stop the Prophet, among others) that still stands up. Best track: You Can't Stop the Prophet

This is a revolutionary hip-hop album....... for 1988. 6 years later, Jeru gets buried by hip-hop royalty in Biggie, Nas, WuTang and more. Rap was about to change forever but it sounds like the damaja was late to the party. This record is just ok.

Didn't like hip-hop then. Don't like it now.

Day 20 of Albums You Must Hear brings me the second Hip-Hop album so far, The Sun Rises In The East by Brooklyn, NY emcee, Jeru The Damaja. While the rap market was bloated and over saturated in 1994, some of the greatest acts in Rap Music, my first love, dropped their debut albums in 1994. It was a hell of a year. Ready To Die from The Notorious B.I.G., Illmatic from Nas, Creepin’ on ah Come Up from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, The Most Beautifullest Thing In The World from Keith Murray, Tical From Method Man, Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik from Outkast, all debut albums from icons, and thats just scratching the surface. The Fugees, Warren G and Da Brat also stepped out onto the scene. On top of all that, established artists like Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice Cube, 8Ball & MJG, House of Pain and Hammer released music in ’94. Shit, even Shaq had a rap record, and it actually wasn’t total crap! Thats just in hip-hop, 1994 was a great year for music in general. I say all that to justify why Jeru the Damaja wasn’t really on my radar… I knew of Jeru the Damaja and saw the video for his single Come Clean on Rap City on BET and I liked it, it just didn’t stand a chance competing with the above mentioned artists for my attention. Jeru went to high school with Guru and DJ Premier of Gang Starr. When he was featured on the song I’m the Man from their album Daily Operation, doors were opened for the Brooklyn rapper. Come Clean gained a lot of traction with its gritty, authentic New York hip-hop sound. The Sun Rises In The East is entirely produced by DJ Premier. Jeru has a very clean and intelligent flow. You won’t be starved of any witty punchlines, and while the majority of the tone of this album is anti-gangster rap, he uses his distain for that part of the culture to come off pretty aggressive and violent. Jeru’s stance earned him more than a few adversaries with his colleagues at the time. I love Gangsta Rap, so while I recognize the abilities Jeru showcase in this album, its just not in my wheelhouse, as my Uncle Rick would say. Its 1994’s version of “woke music” and their were plenty of NY lyricists like Jeru the Damaja at the time. This might sound sacrilegious to other hip-hop heads, I found Coolio to have more of an impact on Rap. Side note, the cover art for this album depicts Jeru in front of a skyline of Manhattan with the World Trade Center buildings on fire and collapsing, eerie shit. In the end, I appreciate the lyricism on this album and how it stayed authentic to New York hip-hop. It may be among your favorite ’90’s rap albums, it just had way better competition in the genre at the time, in my opinion, to draw me in. With that said, Jeru the Damaja is still active even today and is passionate about his craft. No disrespect intended Mr. Damaja. Please share your thoughts, opinions and memories!!

Hard hitting samples, crisp MC delivery, strong lyricism, balance between consciousness and gangster, Brooklyn sound, album cover shows WTC in flames (in 1994!). This one hits hard. Love! Ain't the Devil Happy Da Bichez

Sounds like Jay Z's granddad. I love the historicity of this album, but I also really dig the album itself. Jeru has great flow, good beats, and some truthful rhymes. This will definitely stay in my rotation for a while.

Damn, I always get surprised by how much I have grown to love east coast rap. This album is very strong as a debut and as a contemporary to Illmatic, Ready to Die, and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). I think because of how large those 3 albums are, this album and others end up getting lost in the mix, but they deserve a little retribution.

This is a classic, even though I personally prefer 'Wrath of the Math'. Jeru kicks esoteric knowledge and is a real rap legend. I went to see Jeru at Sub Tub in Umist in the '90s. After the show he went amongst the crowd to meet random people, even though it was mostly drunk students dancing to drum and bass. I vaguely remember seeing someone get punched in the face, but I suppose it was a rap show in the '90s.

A quintessential hip hop album of the mid 90s. This album is such a great encapsulation of east coast rap with its swing beats and its elements of jazz and world music. My only criticism is some of the misogyny in the lyrics though compared to some contemporaries, this album is pretty tame. The flow is acrobatic and the lyrics are clear and often socially conscious.

New York rap from the 90s almost always works for me, and this is no exception. DJ Premier's beats are the star of the show here. His samples are brave, almost avant-garde, even dissonant at times, yet he still manages to make everything into a head-bobber. He creates such a rich atmosphere from so few elements. He cuts the samples up in a way that calls attention to the cuts themselves and it really punctuates the songs.

Great early 90s NYC rap. The juxtaposition between Jeru The Damaja's easy listening and fun flows with the discordant and jarring beats makes the album still fresh today even with all the hallmarks of the East Coast rap resurgence from that era easily identifiable. I'll be coming back to this for sure.

Super unique and fun bars and flows. Another underrated throwback rap album that was extremely influential!

I thought this album was pretty cool. It is very emblematic of early 90s hip hop but it still feels relevant today. He had a nice flow and the album was pretty smooth while still being hard hitting.

For the most part, never heard this. I know I’ve heard samples from this though. Pretty good. I enjoy it lyrically and a lot of it still as relevant as the day written.

It's one thing to be a misogynist, but to be one that declares, "hey!, I'm not a misogynist" while demonstrating that he's a misogynist. the rest plays like a mediocre east coast Ice-T, though i did like "Ain't the Devil Happy".

A note to male artists: you can’t just say you’re not a misogynist and then go onto say virulently misogynistic things. I liked a lot of this musically but when I started REALLY enjoying it I looked at my phone and realised the album had ended and Spotify had shuffled similar songs. So.

The beats are often very dissonant such as ok D. Original and You Can’t Stop The Prophet. Personally, it’s not my favorite although I think it works better on YCSTP. Da Bichez is almost a good song but the lyrics are really sexist which really ruins it for me. Jeru does mention “I’m not a sexist” on My Mind Spray which honestly makes it worse. I find the hook on Come Clean annoying. That being said, most of the album is enjoyable. I don’t know enough about hip hop to get into specifics but I did like a lot of the beats and I’m sure this album was influential but I can’t help thinking that it hasn’t held as well as some other hip hop albums from that era. Favorite songs: Mental Stamina, Ain’t The Devil Happy, Jungle Music, Statik Least Favorite Songs: D. Original, Perverted Monks In Tha House, Da Bichez, Come Clean Light 5/10

Epic 90s hip hop

Fire

Is anything more 90s?

JTD!

Albums such as this make me slightly disappointed that hip-hop hasn't gotten any better than the 90s. The creative usage of samples combined with Jeru's silky smooth voice create a brilliant Hip-Hop album. Record spinning sound effects and booming electronic drums are a main stay across the record amongst the wide array of creative samples, with the highlight being 'Ain't The Devil Happy'. I also have to give credence to the hilariously terrible album cover which easily brings this album up for me, . The creativity of samples cannot be understated here, 'Perverted Monks In The House' somehow turns a load of crowd noise into a sample. The album gets better as it goes on, with Jeru saving the best for last, from 'Perverted Monks' onwards its a flawless 90s hiphop album. 9/10 Incredible sampling. Top Tracks -> Mental Stamina -> Da Bichez -> You Can't Stop The Prophet -> Ain't The Devil Happy

Classic

This struck me as excellent rap from a classic and formative era of hip hop. Good stuff.

So good, I listened to it 4 times before rating

Freaking awesome

Nice change of pace.

So good

One of the best rap albums I've never heard of before. On top of the songs having excellent and diverse flows, the production is especially excellent with its driving simplicity. So many albums have a tendency to be over produced, but this is the definition of "keep it simple stupid" and let the rapping do the talking. Top tracks: You Can't Stop The Prophet, Ain't The Devil Happy, My Mind Spray, Come Clean

Love it

Great.

I have never heard of this artist before, and I absolutely loved this album. I thought the beats were fantastic. Very interesting uses of instruments in there. Jarring in spots but that felt completely intentional. I loved the flow too...great rhythm to it. Some of the lyrics haven't aged well, but not outside of the norm for the era.

Great seminal 90s rap album

Phenomenal album. Glad to have been introduced to it.

Raw and heavy, with rap and beats that left me wanting more.

Diese Challenge ist einfach super. Ich höre Alben, die ich nie freiwillig angehört hätte. Nun entdecke ich , gut gemachter Rap oder Hip-Hop einfach Spaß macht . Mein bisheriges Vorurteil wird korrigiert. Das gilt auch für dieses Album. Sehr gute Produktion, frech, provozierend, toller Rhythmus, cool einfach.

Da Bichez is another classic example of 90s hip hop trying not to be disparaging and failing miserably. Don't worry guys it's not the queen's, sisters and young ladies you need to worry about, it's these vampryic bitches. In saying that, You Can't Stop The Prophet is another classic example of 90s hip hop bringing outrageous texture and nuance to some surprisingly deep subject matter. Personifing Ignorance with a posh English accent was a left field and kind of hilarious flourish, same with the overall character development, scene building and to be continued ending. All straight poetry. Product of it time defense plays five stars.

Great lyrics. Story telling/catchy/good hooks. Not too much machismo. Solid.

Pleasantly surprised! First song’s beat through me off at first but that song grew on me listening through it the first time. Then Jeru was done warming up. Lyrically, dude is on point and the beats are some really unique ones especially using piano in hip-hop.

Oh man this album is great. Love the flow and there's plenty of cool lines throughout, and the production and beats sound out of the world

Amazing, I feel bad for not ever hearing this.

Great rhymes

Man i was not expecting to like this. Immediately it just grabbed me and didn't let me go. Infectious beats, clever lines. This thing rules

Not a hip hop listener. But this has a good groove and doesn't seem to have aged. It's of its time, but clearly timeless

I'm surprised by the year. This sounds later then 1994. Which might point to why this is on this list. Very tight, if a bit shocking to be to shocking.

Great east coast hip hop with wonderful music beds that reminds me of the best of Wu Tang.

Genius east coast hip hop, from a time most of the scene was looking west. An artist I had never even heard of, but wish I had! Hints of wu tang style, in beats and flow, and i can hear his influence on both Akala and eminem, and many others. Bordering on conscious, but with beats and skits too. Loved it, now off to find out what he did to be expunged from the history books!

Damn!

Very good east coast rap.

Great 90’s NY hip hop. Really enjoyed this!

Perfect start to finish. One of the best classic hip hop albums I've heard

Heaps of family samples, and dope tracks. Up loud relive the hay day

A near perfect rap album

Wow I can’t believe I’ve never heard of him before, but I was impressed by this album. While both are great, I’d consider east coast rap superior. I will definitely be checking out more of his albums.

What the heck amazing?! The root of some Dilated Peoples samples?! Super fun. Really good. Good vibes!

Although I had never heard of Jeru The Damaya before seeing this the album cover alone screams classic 90’s hip hop and this project really does not disappoint. This album is filled with slick rhymes, abstract beats and little MF Doom-like skit snippets throughout with no filler whatsoever, I wouldn’t be surprised if Joey Bada$$ took inspiration from this album for his mixtape 1999 as there are a good handful of moments on here that remind me of that project, classic Brooklyn hip hop. I particularly enjoy the unorthodox piano on the track ‘D.Original’ and the catchy hook on ‘Da Bichez’. Despite the stripped back production making way for more lyrical focus the beats on this record kept me listening and that’s why I find this to be such a great record, because there’s that balance

This may well be my favourite hip hop album I've heard on the list so far. I'd never even heard of Jeru The Damaja before this, but I can see why he played a big part in the revival of the East Coast Hip Hop scene. The lyricism is excellent, there's a real poetic quality to his rapping. The misogyny is obviously there but I don't think it's as bad as a lot of the other rappers around this time. The beats were amazing too, and they never felt overshadowed by the vocals. Instead the beats and rapping always seemed to compliment each other. This was just a great classic hip hop album, the best hip hop I've heard on the list thusfar, and potentially my new all-time favourite hip hop album.

DJ Premier beats en goede old school east coast rap. Kende alleen mental stamina, wat ik wel echt een goed nummer vind net als de rest van het album eigenlijk. Staat blijkbaar in het rijtje met east coast classics uit die tijd waar ik het nu ook mee eens ben

This album fucking rules. If you need introduce somebody to 90s rap, do it with this album. Beats are great and interesting--I'll always for jazz-inspired beats like on Da Bichez. Lyrics are great and important, flow is great. Favorite tracks: Da Bichez, Ain't the Devil Happy. Honorable mentions to Mental Stamina and My Mind Spray

cool

Ovo je taj pravi hladni pa čak i mračni east coast klasik, 4.5, no cap. DJ Premier je napravio svoj posao kako on samo zna sa produkcijom. Esencijalan album za east coast. U ovom slučaju dajem peticu (4.5), jer ono, jeben album od glave do pete, no skips.

Love it - old school sound with cool and unusual samples and beats from DJ Premier plus Jeru the Damaja's unique style.

How have never heard this. Absolute amazing hip hop album…. I’ll revisiting this bad boy very soon!

I can't believe I hadn't heard this one, but it was obviously good.

This record maintains the balance of the universe.

In the top 50 of all time

I first heard this album years ago and wrote him off as another failed DJ Premier pet project in the vein of Group Home. After listening to this again, I have no idea what I was on because this is a fantastic album. Jeru has some real dumb lines but he says it all with such command that you can't help but go along with it, same with Premier's production. Easy 5 mics.

I'm really surprised I've never heard of this album before because it's very much in my wheelhouse. some really clever rhymes, incredible production, and is over before you're even starting to lose interest.

Classic new york hip hop, gritty beats, and creative samples never heard of this rapper despite being a big hip hop fan and I loved this project the mixing is really bad but I think it really adds to the aesthetic of the album almost all songs are bangers but some of the songs were not as interesting as others but were still good. 9/10

Originale, crudo, rap preciso

Here’s to you Jeff ❤️

Wordplay that clearly inspired all of modern rap with weirdly addictive beats

Good shit, really enjoyed the old school NY rap vibes.

Fantastic early-90s east-coast rap.

Jeru has formidable intelligence with a freaky-freaky flow. Preemo’s production has a cold menace that’ll make your neck snap. An Essential Combo

Despite this album showing it's age (especially with the flow and some of the lyrics), I really liked the raw production and the beats on this thing. Not used to hearing raw production I'd usually find on black metal records on a hip hop record (lots of crackling, sound levels vary across songs, etc), yet here we are, haha. The beats too have this really unique style to them I haven't really heard anywhere else. This really dark, uncomfortable vibe that's really cool. Definitely hearing this album's influence particularly in other ungrounded hip hop records like Dr. Octagonecologist (just without the juvenile humor and sci-fi weirdness. Will say Dr. Octagonecologist is a fantastic record). D. Original and You Can't Stop the Prophet being my standouts.

I could do without the misogyny and homophobia but musically I enjoyed it.

I didn't realise how much rap albums needed a bad English evil accent until now. This was also switched-on and super exciting, although I'm not sure how well "Da Bichez" will go down now.

A stone cold classic

EXCELLENT

Solid hip-hop, love that

Great flow, great vocabulary.

Great album. Only song I didn't like was Mental Stamina because of the annoying bleep sound that plays throughout, though I enjoy the other components of the song still. Just a good example of the late 80s / early 90s flow.

Really liked this - just laid back and chill. Will relisten.

Solid hip hop album. I liked Jeru's flow, rappers today don't rap like this anymore. The back half of the album came in strong and upped my opinion of the album. Standouts: Ain't The Devil Happy, Come Clean, You Can't Stop the Prophet Rating: 4.00/5

Classic NYC East Coast rap. With DJ Premier boom bap you can’t go wrong. Not in my usual rotation but goes down smooth.

Familiar with most East/West coast artists/albums from this era, but this artist and album flew under my radar. Album art is eerily prophetic. It’s a really solid record. Jeru is a great lyricist with meaningful and clever lines. MC work is masterful. The DJ beats vacillated between average and unique. The album definitely holds up 30 years later. I’ll add this one to my rotation of early 90s rap for sure.

Great album. I love Jeru's flow, and the production is perfect. I love the dissonance and the kinship with the Wu Tang sort of vibe coming up around the same time. Come Clean is an absolute classic.

Sounds like he inspired wu tang

Never heard of this artist before. I'll check him out. This album is known as one of the top 100 greatest hip hop albums in the 90s. This album is pretty good and I have never heard of this. I'm not much of a "hip-hop head" but I do think I am very aware of history music. Almost reminds me of Wu-Tang before Wu-Tang.

Solid DJ Premier work here in the early platinum age of rap, in a year full of absolute classics in the whole genre. It's been a minute since I listened to this album. Da Bitchez is the best known classic and Can't Stop the Prophet, but there's tons of great music often slept on here, like Mental Stamina, Ain't the Devil Happy, My Mind Spray. And underground producer-nerd-out tracks like Come Clean, with water drop sound... "You want to front, whatttt?"

3.6 I was initially apprehensive. There's been a few of these mid 90s minimal beat hip hop albums now. Maybe I'm in a good mood, but this was landed better than the others. Kind of thing that wouldn't be bad having on in the background, lowish volume. Didn't drag on either, sub-40min seems like a super rarity in the era of hip hop albums containing 15 skits and coming in over 74 minutes to stop CD burning. Small win.

4/5

Great, old school (at least considered that these days) Brooklyn hip-hop. Great wordplay and strong beats.

Good album, reminds me of a slightly less developed Jurassic 5. But of course, this album is from 5 years before they even formed. A stepping stone that holds up.

Man, the mid-90s were cool as hell for hip-hop. Pre-technological overload, the craft was insane. Crate digging and socially conscious grooves. The one downside is the cultural bent toward misogyny. It came up multiple times and is the one thing that turned me off. This was the magic time in NYC when it was livable and everybody in the culture was optimistic about a future world. That world never came to be, it the ciphers of old give a cool window into a better musical time in hip hop.

Some OG shit , I liked it - clean Beats and rhymes.

Never heard of them but it’s great old school hop-hop