Any active Masked Faces supporter is certain to remember Lil Dujour from when we helped promote the video for his song, “CONDITIONED ASSOCIATIONS”. That video dropped around the summertime of last year (2020). Truth be told I was convinced Dujour had more of a heavy trap sound similar to the music found on YouTube channels like ＴＲＡＳＨ 新 ドラゴン or DarkTones 暗いトーン. However, Dujour’s newest release, You Jump I Jump, dropping tomorrow truly shakes up any previous perception a listener might have.
Can an artist going from a darker trap sound really make a smooth transition into a more digestible, crowd friendly sound?
In a world where everyone seems to be preaching about staying in your own lane, what happens when someone who has the heart for it truly goes all in with a project outside of what seems to be their comfort zone? In the case of Lil Dujour, it seems like the only answer is success from his audacious play. Having known about Dujour for some time now I was not entirely sure what to expect but no matter what someone would like to classify this vision as, man had certainly delivered!
SoundCloud Tradition
SoundCloud is a music platform that has been around for more than a decade now. As with a lot of music platforms, most of them take time before they really impact the culture of music as we know it, and SoundCloud is no different. It was not until probably around halfway through the 2010’s where SoundCloud started to become an essential part of a plethora of musicians’ careers. It was around this time where legends like XXXTentacion, Lil Peep, Famous Dex and the likes started seeing the attention that ultimately put these artists in the spotlight.
Bringing this all back to Lil Dujour’s “You Jump I Jump”, the album boasts nostalgia for that golden age of Soundcloud. With tracks that practically anybody could relate to. This album shows a much more personable side of Dujour than we’ve seen before. Not to get it twisted with the SoundCloud of today where seemingly any social media post about SoundCloud (outside of their own) rips them apart for charging artists more than the platform allows for most of them to earn. In fact, more and more artists seem to be taking music off the platform as opposed to the days where practically any album someone was looking for with a particular sound would undoubtedly be on there. Despite how SoundCloud may or may not be perceived today, at it’s core it’s a platform for artists who may not have opportunities to showcase their work anywhere else worthwhile. Similarly, Dujour is clearly submersing himself with all types of influences and seems to want to have some music for everybody.
Modernity
With an overall polished sound and fitting music video, this project certainly takes the ideals brought up earlier and combines that with the modern day possibilities for music. From more hype tracks like, “ZERO” & “ZENDAYA” , to more heartfelt works like, “KEANO” & “PASTELLE”, the inclusivity is there. As for being under the bigger umbrella of the music of today, this detail oriented production leaves listeners satisfied with works that sound like properly executed visions. We all know artists who are comfortable releasing works that don’t embody the artists’ genuine voice, frankly Dujour is not on that type of time. And we can’t forget about the music video paired with this release, “CHELSEY”. For anyone reading unfamiliar with Lil Dujour’s work, it seems like that would be THE place to start to get a solid understanding of where his head is at now. Watch the full video below:
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