Scribbler's Native Tongue Mixtape Pick (Local Edition): Just Ace, "Time Travel Mixtape"

I absolutely love stumbling upon mixtapes, EPs and albums that pleasantly surprise me--especially when I either don't know what to expect from it or don't expect much out of it at all.  When I first discovered the featured local mixtape of [what was supposed to be a review for the month of] April, I just randomly picked it from DatPiff.  I saw that although it didn't have the fanfare of many other mixtapes on the site--honestly, there's an endless sea of mixtapes to sift through, and that's just from the DMV alone--it had enough streams to steer me towards downloading it.  Didn't appear to be like a lot of the average mixtapes on the site--album art with half-naked women, people counting money, random cocaine scales, extravagant houses and/or cars, and the like--so I figured what the heck.  What I got was a seven-track, 24-minute diamond in the rough from Northern Virginia rapper Just Ace, Time Travel Mixtape (presented by Vintage Innovation).

Point of order before I give the "Uptown" (what they call their part of VA) spitter his props: Ace almost didn't make the cut.  The very first song, "Jump Rope," did not wow me.  The beat is not on par with the rest of the production and his flow is not at its absolute best.  However, two lines caught my attention: "Staying in shape, baby, we ain't counting carbs/Write with superhuman strength, we spittin' protein bars."  I thought, "Okay, I hear you, youngin'.  I'll let the mixtape play a little longer and see if that potential I hear actually appears."

It does...and quite impressively.  On the very next track, "What It Look Like," he sounds much more comfortable over a grittier, classic hip-hop beat where his flow sounds like he studied many of the greats that he asserts would choose him as their favorite:

In the booth, my mood gets hyper, energetic/'Cause every verse I throw explodes like it's kinetic/Get the message, a point made from sentences and phrases/I rise with the sun, evolve with the moon's phases/On point, my shot hits targets in long ranges/Accept it, you inappropriate for all ages...

He keeps a similar 90s throwback feel on "SkyLife" featuring MichaelKnight with a solid opener: "I seen the lights flashin' as the sun disappeared/We breathe excellence and pollute the atmosphere/Our life begins at night as we cruise the stratosphere/Living life the way we like, success has to be near."  Then he delivers the only ladies joint of the outing with the ever-so-smooth "Pardon Me".  He arguably spits his strongest hook while keeping the pursuit of his object of affection simple, respectful and genuine: "You might think it's a gyp, but this is me by design/I'm not reading from a script, I'm not feeding you lines."  Later, he drops "2 Faces" over a beat that borrows pieces of Biggie's "Warning" while musing about keeping a watchful eye over friends and associates.  Although this is not the strongest song on Time Travel, it features another decent hook while his second verse picks up with the following jewels:

The ones you trust the most will be the ones that cut your throat/Cross the gap and cut the rope, roll your blunt and lace your smoke/Light the fire, watch you choke, in the rain he'll take your coat/Know you're wet and let you soak, give you Pepsi, sayin' it's Coke...

As the proper contrast and transition, he finishes strong with "The Family"--an ode to those who truly have his back.  He shares some solid advice passed down to him: "My fam told me not to dwell on what can never be/But wait on God to show you things that you could never see/He'll reward you and your hard work with prosperity/He gives to those who work, He even gave Adam Eve."  That's the kind of wisdom that 1) is refreshing to hear from a late 80s baby and 2) I wouldn't have received if I turned off the mixtape after Track #1.

Poignant lines like those featured in "The Family" are the ideal segue to the highlight of Time Travel: the two-bangers-in-one standout, "Prayer Of A Misfit/Pressure".  This seamed-together track was the biggest reason why I chose to feature Ace's mixtape.  In the first half, he has an honest conversation with God about achieving greatness and overcoming himself to do it:

You said that "if you want it, then speak it/Put God first, visualize your goals and you'll receive it/I believe it because it's been written in the scriptures/This man will complete his plans and be the victor/I will succeed, I will be more than a n*gga/I took a step back to see what's bigger than the picture...

In the second half, he gets a different beat and continues the conversation, but speaks more about fending off deterrents designed to stand in the way of the greatness he seeks:

God tellin' me to grind, "Stop wastin' time and maxin'/My child, you have a gift, but you sittin' around slackin'/This wasn't in the plans, if you wanna make it rappin'/Then use what you've been given, stop looking for distractions/You have talent...if you don't use it, I'ma take it/You said you wanna do the music and now you fakin'"/So I'm concentratin', these distractions that I'm facin'/Make me realize I'm standin' still and time is racin'...

Songs like these are precisely why I call my mixtape review post series "Native Tongue".  It's not enough to have the best flow or the best beats...you have to be speaking my language or in terms that hit home for me.  As an artist, I go through exactly what he laid out in the "Pressure" half, but as a man, I totally relate to the "Prayer Of A Misfit" portion.  Any listener will appreciate the simplicity in his delivery because it gets across the human struggle to be better from the perspective of an aspiring artist.

In reviewing Just Ace's Time Travel and listening to it a second and third time, I realized one thing: it's even better than what I gave it credit for and once I typed out some of these lyrics as teasers.  Even on his average songs, you're still engaged because his whole aura is built around sincerity and a magnetic familiarity.  With a voice that sounds like it was meant for either "Golden Era" of hip-hop, a confident swagger that just avoids being arrogant, and possessing knowledge beyond his years, I am positive that he will get quite a few plays in the iPods of any hip-hop fan in the DMV and beyond.

(To download this mixtape, please visit http://www.datpiff.com/Ace-Time-Travel-mixtape.475354.html.  To connect with Ace on Twitter, please go to http://twitter.com/justACE89.)