Cracker Jon
There’s a very small clique of artists that can claim to have started their careers on what has become UK Hip Hop’s biggest label High Focus Records. In 2014 when the powerhouse imprint was in its ascendency Cracker Jon first appeared on the UK scene with debut LP You Can Take The Cracker Out of Croydon. The proudly raw project established a DIY sound, part East Coast US Boom Bap influences and part unfiltered South London vocal grit, which Jon has maintained to this day.
After a well received debut and subsequent phase of tearing down big stages, many a rapper would be hyper-conscious of the need to capitalise on the fame and get right back in the lab working on a sequel. Not so much for Cracker. In fact, aside from a respectable string of features that kept his name a presence on hip hop releases, the following seven years elapsed in a blur of live shows, paint fumes, weed smoke and various mischievous side quests.
Jump forward to the covid era and it seems that while many of us were losing our minds in lockdown, Jon hit his renaissance of prolifically writing and recording his unique brand of illicit heaters. 2021 saw a stream of singles and visuals culminating in 2022’s sophomore LP Bought Off and Silence by Gizmos & Toys with producer Violentlyill on his rising Belfast based label ILL Records. Showcasing a matured approach to his art that kept the piercing disdain wandering between character assassination and disgust at the dystopian but with a new air of insight and schemes that had noticeably levelled up. Keeping things moving 2023 saw the release of EP Don’t Blame and overseas collab with Italian rapper Sesto Carnera on banger ‘Sorrentino’.
Skip to the present day… Finding an additional artistic home as part of the Brain Scran Records family, Cracker Jon is back at it already with his third full length LP Slug Festival. This time in collaboration with Scottish producer Fraser Syme. Drawing on the imagery of George Carlin to envision an imaginary festival that nobody in their right mind would want to attend, Jon has been promoting said fictional event along with the album of the same name. The LP itself is similar levels of fire as depicted in the burning festival ground on the vinyl sleeve. Beats for hip hop purists layered with sharply written bars reflecting a vulgar reality and offering a fragmented, jaded critique of its various actors. Cop that on vinyl now!