J-Mar Flexes His Pedigree On Simba: Return of the King

By Josh Rizeberg

One of the best times of Tacoma Hip-Hop was when Black Anger was dominating the entire Washington State Hip-Hop scene. It was so incredibly refreshing to hear and witness beautiful, militant, intelligent, revolutionary, quality Hip-Hop emerge from Tacoma, WA from the youth of our city. Black Anger has never left the Culture and from that tree, a branch has grown incredibly strong. This branch is none other than J-Mar Da Sik. Backed by Black Anger themselves and with the crew’s former DJ and manager steering this ship, J-Mar has produced some of the best Black Power, soulful Hip-Hop that we have ever heard.

The new EP is titled Simba and features a breathtaking photo of a woman in a gorgeous dress holding a chain, leashed to a lion – WOW! J-Mar is always one to put total thought into his projects and releases full-themed cohesive albums. Simba is no different. J-Mar tells us,

“Simba takes you through a journey of a lost man who later finds out that he’s Royalty. Being sometimes referred to as Black Gold, because to own an African prisoner of war (slave) was worth more than gold. This EP lets us know that stolen African people brought to the US are indeed Kings and Queens, and that we should step into our light.”

The title track, “Simba” begins the project with a touching, R & B sounding, slow and smooth beat, but once you hear J-Mar Da Sik’s syrupy, gruff voice, the track turns into something royal. The hook is, “While ya’ll argue ‘bout who’s album sold the nicest, return of the King and my melanin is priceless.”
Check out this quotable:

“I’m mentally afraid of my mind these days.
They killed George Floyd and I hide my rage.
If they did mine like that they’d have to dig more graves
‘Cause I’d be outside the precinct with a loaded AK”

This is the genius of J-Mar Da Sik and in fact the second evolution of Black Anger. Where Black Anger was all street knowledge and smarts, militancy, and well-versed political thought, J-Mar is more of an old soul: sipping on something, raising a family, and bucking the system by being an absolute King. Black Anger exemplifies revolt and a need for change, J-Mar is that change embodied. He is able to lead by example and strength and add more musicality like singing to his music.

Track 2, “Not Trippin’“, has more of a player, cooling vibe. It is grown-man rap with a hint of mature R & B. Even when J-Mar Da Sik is on his playeristic-tip, he still shouts out his heritage and knowledge. Instead of saying gold on his neck, he will say Kemet on his neck. If you do not know what Kemet is, then now you have some googling to do after reading this article!

Song 6, “Gettin’ to the Money“, is a hustler’s anthem, where we hear J-Mar focusing on his profit and teaching us the value of financial independence and Black economics. Touching on everything from real estate to multiple streams of income – It is a valuable lesson put to music.

“Rock-a-Bye Baby“, is the 7th song and happens to be my favorite. It is a funky, loopy Hip-Hop beat with ill DJing going on throughout the whole track. This song has J-Mar Da Sik going absolutely in with a total breakdown of history from Mansa Musa all the way up to the New Jack City era. It is J-Mar, his label Du4Self, and Hip-Hop at its finest.

The rest of the album stays comfortably in this lane. All in all, it is more of an R & B vibe than some of J-Mar’s previous albums. However, the content is still firmly placed in Knowledge-of-Self, Black Liberation, with a hint of grown-up fun going on. Listeners and fans of J-Mar Da Sik know he can sing but this album he really goes for it and it does not disappoint. It is 7 songs perfect for summer listening. Check for the album dropping July 25th.

CHECK OUT MORE J-MAR AT THESE STREAMERS BELOW