Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Profiiit ‘Alexander’ Album Review

/ By Doug Phillips
Profiiit ‘Alexander’ Album Review

This indulgent and impressive album from East Coast rapper, Profiiit might be his most creatively realised and polished project yet. 

Relatively new to Jeeni, Connecticut rapper, Profiiit has taken the hip-hop and rap channels to another level with his hard-hitting and thoughtful brand of introspective US rap music. He has recently contributed the entirety of this new album, ‘Alexander’ to his showcase. Check out his showcase on Jeeni here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/profiiit/ 

Throughout ‘Alexander’, Profiiit refuses to fall into the rut that so many rappers succumb to; repetitive beats, aimless song structures and uninspired lyrics. The way that Profiiit crafts these tracks, gives the impression that they’re important and demand your attention. Sometimes, Profiiit won’t feature his vocals until halfway through a track, because he’s not afraid to allow other components, features and instruments to shine and have their own moment before he contributes his poignant lyrics and flow to the pieces. 

Possibly inspired by Kendrick Lamar, recorded spoken word samples heard throughout add an intimate and real level of substance and insight into Profiiit’s life and backstory. Something that makes a huge difference compared to other artists is Profiiit’s evident prowess in editing down tracks, trimming off fat and streamlining his work. The songs get to the point when necessary and take their time at other moments, depending on the tempo and momentum held in the album’s listen. 

A tasteful and moving use of samples can be expected across this album, particularly in closers ‘Sodapop’ and ‘Red Baron’. Instead of just chopping up samples to construct the instrumental/beat and repeating sections over and over, samples are sometimes played unaccompanied for impact and as an effective means of progressing the tone and mood of the songs, this can be heard in ‘Yale (Josephine)’. 

A perfect selection and amount of featured talent embellish ‘Alexander’ without distracting or diminishing from Profiiit. Peso Dollaz provides a melodic, trap-esque verse for the second half of ‘sant_thegod’ that does well do diversify both the track and the entire album. East London Jeeni artist Jada Freeman provides her soulful singing for some essential backing vocals and hooks in ‘Triggaotto’. And the talented and upcoming Cool Que gives a semi-sung mumble-rap verse on ‘D.R.E’ which is a fantastic contrast from Profiiit’s clear, and distinct rapping. 

A fantastic and layered project from Profiiit, listen to it in full on Jeeni here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/profiiit/  

How can Jeeni support artists like Profiiit?  

JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience. 

• We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  
• We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  
• We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  
• Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. 

21
Jan

Artist Focus: Maple Sky

Although this refreshing four-piece has its foundations firmly planted in modern jazz, Maple Sky harvests their inspirations from a rich and varied crop. Classic rock, 50s lounge jazz, RnB and gospel are all contributed from various members to result in the exciting final product that is Maple Sky.  Maple Sky's origin began with keys player, Joel Bamigboye (far-left in pic above) in 2018 as he was compiling “a small archive of musical material, with the aim of forming a band” to translate his initial creative vision. Olivia McKeon (mid-left) entered the scene and brought a lyrical and vocal element to Joel’s work. From there, with the addition of two others, the Maple Sky prototype formed by the name of ‘NOVA’. Quickly becoming a theme of our Artist Focus blogs; the pandemic forced a change in the group and created a make-or-break scenario for the founding members. Luckily, after releasing their self-titled EP as a duo, the two adapted and survived the obstacle and re-emerged as ‘Maple Sky’ with a key change in personnel. Ed Jordan (mid-right) was introduced as both the drummer and in-house producer, and Christian Rivers-Martin (far-right) was welcomed to contribute his classically trained bass skills as the groove backbone of the group. Since then, the group has been hard at work, whether that’s creating new, sweet jazz tunes or performing their stellar collection of tracks live.   Maple Sky specialise in a broad and flexible portrayal of jazz with influences from Esperanza Spalding, Yebba, and D’angelo. Their eponymous debut EP certainly showcases that range of their influences and inspirations, particularly that of jazz legend, Lester Young and current wunderkind, Arlo Parks.   The group are currently excited for the upcoming single, ‘Vision’, set to be released on the 5th of February, which will join the romantic and heart-aching ‘Free Her’ as the teaser tracks for their future second EP, which will be released later this year. The group also plan to upload a roster of exciting live videos which were shot just before Christmas. Maple Sky promises more big things for those with their ears on the ground for more from the stellar jazz act, “We'd advise making sure you have us followed on all our social media to stay up-to-date with what we've got going on because there is a lot coming up!”  Follow Maple Sky on socials:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/mapleskyband   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MapleSkyBand/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapleskyband/   We've loved supporting and following Maple Sky and we're happy to say that the group have enjoyed being a part of Jeeni, too, "Jeeni have been amazing to work with and we have loved collaborating with them." If Jeeni's mission interests you as an artist or a viewer, sign up for free, today! Check out Maple Sky’s showcase on Jeeni here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/maple-sky/   How can Jeeni support artists like Maple Sky?   JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.   • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. 

28
Jan

Weekly Round-Up #8

The latest developments and additions to Jeeni's mission! Rock-star Eden James joins Jeeni!   New York based Eden James has joined Jeeni’s ranks of global stars. “I like what you do and I would love to help,” Eden says. "I was fortunate to have musicians from Bruce Springsteen's, Paul Simon's and David Bowie's bands contribute to my studio recordings. The last 6 months have been a huge success for me, winning 25 music and video awards around the globe, and receiving a slew of reviews and interviews from some of the biggest music magazines out there, including Classic Rock magazine and American Songwriter magazine.” We’ll be bringing you exclusives from this Number One chart topper right here, meanwhile check out his Jeeni showcase at https://jeeni.com/showcase/edenjames/  New Content Contributed to Jeeni’s Database of Talent!  Fresh, new music has been poured into Jeen’s diverse collection of artistry and talent. The aforementioned Eden James has provided a vintage and classic collection of tracks for our ever-growing rock channel, including ‘New York’ and ‘Black Book’.   The industry legend, Lennox Campbell also contributed some of the stellar RnB and soul tracks that he’s produced such as ‘Beautifull’ and ‘Lost One’s’.   Another exciting new addition to Jeeni is the UK chill-rap artist, Cassius Gray. Achieving over 2 million streams across his discography, Cassius has achieved so much already and we can’t wait so promote him further. Check out tracks like ‘From Here On Out’ and ‘Flight 22’ on Jeeni, now.  Featuring members with connections to Elton John and Hanz Zimmer, ‘Coolstar’ is an epic collaboration of all sorts of artists and have offered the tracks ‘Homeland’ and ‘I Keep Walkin.’ to Jeen’s database.  Brand new music from Daisy Chute and I K 8OY has also been added to Jeeni today, on the same day as their releases. Check out Daisy’s ‘Cradle Songs’ and I K 8OY’s ‘Let You Know’.  New Jeeni Blogs Published! In anticipation for Maple Sky’s new single, ‘Vision’, set to be released next Saturday, we prepared an ‘Artist Focus’ blog for the smooth jazz quartet, “Maple Sky specialise in a broad and flexible portrayal of jazz with influences from Esperanza Spalding, Yebba, and D’angelo.”  We’ve also been reviewing and praising the stunning work of our artists. Beginning with Glaswegian rock band, Respite’s first EP, ‘Vol.1’, “This five-track project is a triumphant and proud announcement of a new advancement in their style, synergy and musicianship.”   We also had two single reviews, for Arianna May’s ‘Suffolk Bay’ and Baby Panna’s ‘Golden’. On Suffolk Bay, Arianna May’s “vision is translated through her expressive piano playing and is then fully realised by her sweet, graceful vocals which glide as delicately as the accompanying strings.”. Baby Panna’s ‘Golden’ is an impactful final track for his debut mixtape, “The instrumental landscape set for this frank and passionate narrative is an atmospheric and soulful wave of spaced-out beats and crackly samples.”  Jeeni also featured its first live review of Giack Bazz’s incredible set from last Friday (21st, January), “Considering the arsenal of instruments Giack typically uses to convey his vision, the emotive power that he communicated with just his voice, a guitar and a pedal board was astonishing.”  We loved attending Giack’s gig in East-London and we’d love to see our artists perform more often.   Reach out to the Jeeni marketing team at doug@jeeni.com or ella@jeeni.com.  Make sure you're following us on social media to keep up to date with new releases from our artists, our blogs and any job openings.  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeenimusic/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeenimusic   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeenimusic   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/33222018/admin/ 

12
Mar

The Best Biopics & Musical Films for 2021

There's a huge array to look forward to from the film world and after the delays of 2020, the backlog is now ready to be released. Below, is a short list of the best biopics and musical films for 2021, a mix of mainstream and online, in order of their release date. Johnny Flynn as David Bowie in 'Stardust" Stardust OUT: Jan 15Not to be confused with the Neil Gaiman fantasy, this Stardust is a biopic focused on David Bowie in the year or so before (and leading up to) Ziggy Stardust. Johnny Flynn will play a 24-year-old Bowie, with Gabriel Range directing from Christopher Bell's screenplay. Marc Maron plays Bowie's beleaguered American publicist Ron Oberman. Bar scene from 'One Night in Miami' One Night In Miami... OUT: Jan 15A fictional account of a night in 1964, as four icons of sports, music, and activism gather to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history: Cassius Clay's defeat of heavy weight champion Sonny Liston. Eli Goree is the soon-to-be Muhammed Ali, with Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Leslie Odom Jr as Sam Cooke, and Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown. Soul co-director/co-writer Kemp Powers adapted the film from his own stage play, and it'll stream on Amazon Prime. Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes in 'To Olivia' To Olivia OUT: Feb 19Biopic focused on the tempestuous marriage of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl. An adaptation of Stephen Michael Shearer's biography of Neal, titled An Unquiet Life, it stars Keeley Hawes and Hugh Bonneville as the central couple, with support from Conleth Hill and, in his final screen performance, the late Geoffrey Palmer. John Hay is the director. Max Harwood plays teenager, Jamie New Everybody’s Talking About Jamie OUT: Feb 26Jonathan Butterell helms an adaptation of his hit Brit musical. The based-on-a-true-story stage show centres on a teenager in Northern England (Sheffield in the story, Newcastle in real life) who is determined to attend his year 11 prom in drag, to the disapproval of the school. Andra Day as Billie Holiday The United States v Billie Holiday OUT: March 12Biopic following legendary soul singer Billie Holiday (Andra Day) during a difficult period of her career. Holiday was targeted during the 1940s by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), with whom she'd previously had a tumultuous affair. Partially based on Johann Hari's book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days Of The War On Drugs. The Beatles plying live, on top of Apple Corps in London The Beatles: Get Back sneak peek OUT: August 27Sticking with documentary following the success of They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson turns his attention to the final days of The Beatles. Get Back features never-before-seen footage of the band shot in 1969, with added material from their final live performance on top of the London Apple Corps offices. Ringo says it's a much truer portrait of the end of the Beatles than 1970's original Let It Be film. Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin in 'Respect' Respect OUT: October 8Another musical biopic, in this case following Aretha Franklin's life from her early days singing in her father's church choir to her latterday status as civil rights activist and iconic soul superstar: the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Franklin personally chose Jennifer Hudson to play her. The Jets and The Sharks in 'West Side Story' West Side Story OUT: December 10Steven Spielberg's first musical adapts Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's classic stage show, itself an updated and relocated retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The feuding families become warring gangs the Jets and the Sharks. Can Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria's (Rachel Zegler) love cross that great divide? For detailed listing of all upcoming releases go to: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-movies-2021/ For music, news, blogs, videos and playlists go to: http://www.jeeni.com