::ALBUM REVIEW::

Some musicians were sho'nuff born to create music. When you are born into two musical dynasties like J Moss, it’s hard to dodge the possibilities of making music for a living. Now J Moss is abiding in his musical inheritance and working out those genetic blessings in more ways than one. He has engineered a number of outstanding hits for both mainstream and gospel artists including Karen Clark-Sheard, Hezekiah Walker, Kelly Price, *NSYNC, Sisqo, Dave Hollister and Destiny’s Child. In 2004, Moss went on the record to prove how exceptional he was as a vocalist when he jumped into the recording industry with his solo debut, “The J Moss Project”. The album yielded three hits (“I Wanna Be”, “We Must Praise”, “Psalm 150") and made him an overnight success. Moss continues in the urban/contemporary tradition he is best known for on “V2..."; his sophomore collection released on GospoCentric/Zomba. The project flows from upbeat club music to quiet storm midnight burners while occasionally creeping in a few urban praise and worship cuts towards the middle of the album. In no way is Moss trying to appeal to all audiences - he is strongly consistent with what he is known for producing and is committed in delivering bad boy beats and “in-your-face” lyrical content to urban/hip-hop audiences.

Things kick off with infectious beats on the teeny-bopper, clubbish “Jump, Jump”. The song easily fits into the dance repertoire of B2K. Instead of “Bump, Bump. Bump”, Moss gets his “praise on” and calls it “praise jumping”, while Kierra “KiKi” Sheard occasionally jumps in with her jazzy riffs and 21:03 handles background duties. The innocent pop sound sprinkled with Lloyd Barry’s horn arrangements creates a win-win combination for the perfect album opener. “I’m Not Perfect” swings with a Keith Sweat smooth groove but gives off inspiring and encouraging personal pleas to God as both Moss and guest vocalist Anthony Hamilton declare their shortcomings in their quest to get better spiritually. The tune is brilliantly mastered with dazzling vocoder effects and a memorable melody that works wonders on the chorus. Another strong standout includes his live interpretation of “We Love You” (first appeared on Byron Cage’s “An Invitation To Worship”). The song gets an old-school facelift and is dazzled with quick bass creeps and a funkier contemporary gospel rhythm. But what makes this rendition work and almost feels complete in comparison to Cage’s version is how Marvin L. Winans injects his signature vocal thrusts into the mix and takes us back to the wondrous days of “Let My People Go”. Byron Cage also jumps into the array of vocal exchanges; making a delightful mix of some of Detroit’s finest male vocalists. Add to the fact that the bumping effects of the vamp are certain to cause dance outbreaks. “Operator”, the album’s first single, also mixes old-school vibes with new school drum programming and Moss’ effective background harmonies. Make some kind of reference that the song may get a few structure comparisons with New Edition’s 80's hit; “Mr. Telephone Man”. The chorus rings with that same kind of simplicity, but it’s a good idea to revisit those memories and to add something fresh to what is good. Aside from the song ending abruptly, the song remains a prime example of Moss’ studio masterpieces.

Just as delightful are the smooth churns found on the R&B-infused ballads. “Know Him” is a glistening mix of therapeutic musical overtures and acoustic guitar sprinkles from Darryl Dixon. Karen Clark-Sheard duets with Moss and perfectly delivers timed riff executions. The song isn’t designed to be a strong album single since it is structured in a number of contemporary jazz influences, but it’s an enjoyable listen and helps gives the album a refreshing continuity from one song to the next. “Praise On The Inside”, a healthy cross of pop and R&B, lingers on the leftovers of “Work Your Faith” or “We Must Praise” and is bound to give praise-and-worship followers something to linger around. “Let It Go” easily mends the sex appeal of Omarion’s groove ballad techniques into breezy synths and cool vocal work.

Remarkably, Moss stretches his creative powers even greater on the closing twelve-minute bonus material. In the linear notes, it appears that there’s only one track present, but that’s far from the real truth since two more cuts are also attached. “Florida”, a unique song that uses sneaky parable-like storytelling about lust atop a bass-driven rhythm, is lyrically creative and one of Moss’s most challenging compositions to date. He warns listeners towards the end of the cut about the bad flack he may receive due to the depth of the lyrical content, but he may just be one of the few modern gospel artists that would get away with delivering this kind of a song. “73 Degrees” lingers on a relaxed neo-soul/jazz groove and finds Moss experimenting with Tonex’s relaxed Nuerau sound. The closing segment of the bonus material, “Everybody Ain’t Gotta Word”, is just as refreshing and highly authentic. Moss spits out his frustrations with much emotion about false prophets on top a cool tempo and glossy production.

There are a few odd spots that pop up throughout the project. “Dance” opens up with the exact same drum opener from The Time’s “777-9311" (an important piece of sampling the linear notes fails to mention) and uses Kirk Franklin’s well-known verbal skills to enhance the song’s hype. Unfortunately, the rhythms and treble levels here aren’t that intense to dance off too. Getting into most of the lyrics, one might discover how the focus of the lyrics remain on material things and wealth. It almost feels as if the everyday decisions and difficulties (road rage, sex, debt, fancy cars, marriage, etc.) of our life are hard to manage for J Moss. It’s cool for youth to hear this continuous reminder of their own lifestyle, to witness this kind of reflection and to hear answers for these elementary problems, but most mature faith walkers might not be able to relate as easily with this kind of content. Last but not least, most of the songs end abruptly or feature misguided sound effects that resemble the likes of cheesy radio commercials. Besides those bewildering challenges, the album is the rewarding sophomore project J. Moss deserves. It’s definitely a step-up in his creative power and remains full with massive radio airplay strength for gospel radio stations and may make a possible shift into mainstream R&B markets. He is consistent to his format and takes his musical formula to yet another plateau; revealing a few new musical influences and blossoming lyrical direction.