Guest Blogger: Jon 2

Parker (Jonathan Parker) also known as Dumbfoundead is one of my all-time favorite hip hop/ rap artist whom I’ve been listening to for a few years. He’s one of my favorites because in all of his songs, his flow seems effortlessly smooth. Even in his rap battle type songs he still comes off as if he’s not even trying. With Parker’s music there isn’t one consistent mood his music evokes, some of his songs get you hyped, some make you relax, and some make you feel down. It’s impressive that he can make us feel such a diverse range of emotions, and I think that shows how talented he is as an artist. I believe the most similar artist to Parker is G-Eazy. Some rappers have a very choppy sound, but these two are the exact opposite, their best quality as musicians in my opinion is their delivery. Onto his album Take the Stares. Aside from a few songs on this album, I wasn’t a huge fan. The album was too mainstream for me, most of the songs were about partying and him being famous and the perks that come with it. Also many of the songs are over produced and have too much going on in them. What really turned me off though was the fact that his sound that set him apart from others seemed to be lost. The songs that I actually enjoyed were “Old Boy Jon”, “New Chick”, and “Growing Young”; these songs were the few in the album that actually highlighted his talent and what sets him apart. And a review by Charles Lam in northwest asian weekly agrees with me, in the article it goes on talking about how Parker tried to make his music more trendy, but this ended up upsetting fans who wanted the original Parker. Although this album isn’t worth buying, or even downloading illegally, his other works are definitely worth it. His sophomore album DFD, Love Everyday EP, and Old Boy Jon are fantastic albums that Dumbfoundead fans and I can’t get enough of.