At Music Jawn, we seek to periodically feature artists in and around the local music community. If you or an artist you know would like to be featured in our next installment, let us know!

ebnyrave x DEATHSTARE

Looking for a rap-infused electro-apocalypse banger? Look no further than the collaboration between independent artists ebnyrave and DEATHSTARE from Atlantic City, NJ. September 25th saw the release of their collaborative LP, LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND. The new LP features 10 tracks with three accompanying music videos. Reminiscent of Kayzo’s collaborations, the duo’s high-intensity energy carries through their lyrical flow and intricate production.

FROM THE ARTIST:

“We broke rules
We're both a bit rebellious
10-track collaborative LP
Several full-length music videos
Independent
Out of pocket
Out of passion & pain
That's why we're proud to bring this to you LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND”

YUSEF HASNIN

Singer-songwriter and filmmaker Yusef Hasnin is presently based in Los Angeles, but his musical origins trace back here in Philadelphia. Growing up in Ghana listening to reggae with his father, Yusef was influenced by the likes of Bob Marley and Lucky Dube. After years exploring, Hasnin found his way back to his roots with his first professionally recorded single release:

FROM THE ARTIST:

“I spent part of my high school years crashing on my uncle’s couch in Southwest Philly while going to John Bartram. 

I remember lining up before school while kids battle-rapped, then getting lined up at the barbershop while we debated who had the better drop, Jay-Z or Nas.

I even wrote my first bars there. It was during the Beanie Sigel/State Property vs. Jadakiss/LOX beef, so you can probably imagine what they sounded like. 

Those bars have since been retired.

I didn’t know I’d become a musician then, but Coltrane, The Roots, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, that cool Philly soul sound trained my ear.

These days I’ve returned to my roots, reggae, the music I grew up listening to with my father in Ghana. 

Philly may not be where my relationship with music began, but it’s where I started to believe I could make some of my own.”

RATANGA JUNCTION

Joel Ronning's debut solo release is a deeply personal, exploratory work. Born in Philadelphia, he spent 12 years of his life in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa before moving back to the U.S. for college in Baltimore. Now back in Philadelphia, Ronning has crafted his new album under the moniker Ratanga Junction, released independently through his own label, Zone Bamboo. Featuring saxophone and clarinet contributions from Jarrett Gilgore, the album serves as a labor of love and a deeply emotional, philosophical expression by Ronning.

FROM THE ARTIST:

“The album title alludes to the shared moments of silence between two people in love, both of whom don’t quite realize that they are, let alone that their love is reciprocated. Intense and sustained "ellipses", in which they can't find the words to express what they only feel and do not know. As you can probably guess, it’s a very personal album, but equally important is the more philosophical component—for years I've had a line from L. Wittgenstein stuck in my mind, “The limits of language are the limits of my world”. This idea is the epitome of Logocentricism, which lies at the heart of most western philosophy, and it’s a concept that I wanted to use as a sort of antagonist while making the record, something I could interrogate and ultimately oppose. Is language the thing that we must value above all else? What possible worlds arise from that foundation, and what sort of worlds could be built on another kind of foundation entirely? This album is my representation of a world that lies beyond those limits of language...
That said, I don’t want to be misunderstood. I love language, in fact I studied English literature and philosophy in college, but at the heart of every personal philosophy is the answer to the question: what do you value? And I am repelled by Wittgenstein’s answer. I wanted to try to make music that belongs to another ideological paradigm, even if I was the only one on earth who’d ever be aware of that goal.”

Follow Ratanga Junction on Instagram.