Refreshingly old-school hip-hop from the ever reliable Joey Valence & Brae.

We first came across Joey Valence & Brae researching acts appearing at Reading Festival in 2023. It was love at first listen. Their 2 MCs and 1 DJ approach showed they were the heirs apparent for legendary hip-hop masters The Beastie Boys. The live show did not disappoint with huge levels of energy and a locker full of tunes.

They have kept very busy ever since ‘Punk Tactics’ broke through in 2022. A debut album of the same title came out September 2023, a follow up was less than a year later in June 2024. After that there was a blinding collaboration with Pendulum in ‘Napalm’ and a couple of other non-album singles with other artists. Now, just over a year from the previous album we get a full fourteen track release. No one can accuse them of being slackers.

A strong batch of singles proceeded HYPERYOUTH. The opening track of the same title has large reserves of energy, tight beats and their ever reliable flow. ‘LIVE RIGHT’ is an absolute anthem with a blinding chorus. We somehow missed ‘WASSUP’ the week it came out but it was such a monster track we had to include it in our singles round up for the following week and make it Single of the Week. It is safe to say this is one of our favourite singles released so far this year. It is an ENORMOUS collaboration with JPEGMAFIA . In the last week ‘SEE U DANCE’ popped out featuring the more dance end of their production skills, with Rebecca Black providing the chorus. I can’t even remember the last time I heard someone say “Let’s get crunk!” but this is so great we will let it slide.

There isn’t a single weak track on this album. The suspect status of Michael Jackson means ‘Billie Jean’ isn’t the best idea to use as song inspiration, but there remains a large scale musical on the West End so the hero/villain dichotomy is going to persist for a long while yet.

There are a large number of dancefloor monsters amongst the album tracks, ‘BUSTDOWN’ has a strong hint of The Neptunes/NERD in the production, ‘THE PARTY SONG’ doesn’t disappoint. ‘GO HARD’ sounds like it samples Charlie XCX, or someone doing a fair impersonation of her. The samples have no sacred cows, there are all sorts of things that you will recognise, even a few seconds of ‘Bangarang’ is thrown into the mix.

JVB can slow it down as well, ‘IS THIS LOVE’ brings it down a notch. Some more thoughtful emotions come to the surface on ‘PARTY’S OVER,’ ‘HAVE TO CRY’ and ‘MYSELF.’ Humour is always round the corner again. They never take themselves too seriously and there are some absolutely daft lines in there. “I’m half-amazin’ and half-Asian, I’m so good, you could say I’m amazian“

This is predominantly a hip-hop party album in all the best ways. There are just enough hints of thoughtfulness to suggest there are deeper currents to the pair and just a few thoughts about growing up and getting a little older. Considering they make all their own music, rarely involving any other producers, the production is utterly superb. It might not quite be the best hip-hop or rap album of the year but is the most thrillingly fun and entertaining.