Jack Harlow Is Open & Honest On New Album “Jackman.”
Jack Harlow / Rolling Stone
Jack Harlow returns to the rap scene with his 3rd studio album, Jackman. The 25-year-old rapper gets to celebrate the release with it being his first number one on Billlboard’s Top Rap Albums chart. Despite my personal thoughts and feelings on the album, I’m absolutely ecstatic for Harlow and all of his success.
Jack seemingly vanished out of thin air from both social media and the music scene altogether for a bit. I dearly missed Jack even after the anti-climatic release of Come Home The Kids Miss You (2022) and because of that, I have to admit I had nerves about this surprise drop. Because of these nerves, I took a few weeks before sitting down and dedicating some time to listen to it. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on Jackman., track by track!
Track 1 - Common Ground
“Reciting rap lyrics about murder and cash profit, Get to feel like a thug but don't have to act on”
The lyric quoted above sums up the message of the intro track; I felt Common Ground was a really nice way to set the tone of this somewhat of a redemption/comeback album. Jack’s view on the relationship between white people and hip-hop culture is definitely unique, I find it rare to see white rappers calling out their own fans and the flaws they carry into the rap space. This topic becomes a re-occurring theme throughout the entire album and defines who Jack is both as a rapper and a long-time listener/fan of rap music.
Track 2 - They Don’t Love It
“The hardest white boy since the one who rapped about vomit and sweaters”
Rap is known for being extremely braggadocious and I do have a certain level of respect for Jack for the lyric above, and he is being called out for it a lot. I respectfully disagree with Jack saying he’s the hardest white rapper, we have tons of underrated and talented white rappers who don’t/didn’t have the commercial success that Harlow holds but deserves it. Tokken and Mac Miller are just a few examples that come to mind.
I also think the rap community picks and chooses when they want to consider someone a “white rapper.” I have 3 widely successful rappers that come to mind-J. Cole, Logic, and Drake all of which are half black and half-white. Would we consider any of them the hardest white rapper since Eminem? Logic and Drake are more known to be mocked or made fun of for the lack of melanin and black culture present in their lives. People have become so comfortable labeling what is and what isn’t “enough blackness” in someone to decide what race they truly represent when it comes to music. Cole is the only one who comes off as “more black” and less known for having a white side.
Aside from the controversial line about Eminem, I loved to hear Jack talking about looking to improve his hometown and the upcoming artists from there.
Track 3 -Ambitious
“Is the playing field fair or is it fairer for me?”
First off, I absolutely love the transition from They Don’t Love It to this track, the beat selections have been A1 since the album started. Although I really did love and appreciate the production on Thats What They All Say (2020), this laidback vibe fits Jack’s cadence a lot better, he sounds a lot more comfortable on these beats.
This is also one of my favorite tracks from the album mainly because of the personality written all over it. The line “mustache coming in, I really want a beard though” genuinely made me chuckle and it gives this playfulness to the song that I love so much from Jack. Later on in the album he touches on not feeling confident in his last few singles; you can see clear as day he feels the most at home rapping this way.
Jack takes us back to his come-up days and I really enjoyed hearing his grind and the visual he paints of his past. Ambitious is one of Jack’s most cinematic songs, he’s actively telling a story of when he was just a naive teen with a dream, to now being an adult with all the success he wanted. There is a parallel throughout this song that I noticed; he went from going to restaurants with no security (just his brothers) to not trusting people with phones at parties.
Track 4 - Is That Ight?
In all honesty, I don’t have much to say about this track. It was more of a miss for me and it felt incomplete and like it should’ve been an interlude. If anything Is That Ight? made me appreciate the looped samples and the chill drum combinations, it makes the album feel more like Jack’s earlier mixtapes/EPs.
Track 5 - Gang Gang Gang
“We hold accountable the ones we hold dear out of morals, but mainly fear.”
Listening to Gang Gang Gang gave me a genuine shock. Most would agree the “no snitching" culture is almost never talked about amongst men when it comes to sexual assault. There are so many victims of sexual abuse/rape but not enough men talk about their friends who engage in these crimes. Jackman. has been so incredibly honest and open about everything involving Harlow’s life so far, and it’s refreshing. I find it really interesting that Jack had to mourn the loss of a long friendship because of something really messed up. Even the sample is extremely somber and fits the narrative of the song.
Track 6 - Denver
“‘Walkin’ past the homeless in a Rolex, just got off the stage on the TODAY Show and I basically felt soulless”
“Ignorance is bliss and so is bein’ underground ‘cause it was fun when we were known less”
“I’ve seen enough of me on this lil’ screen I’ve become so vain and insecure ‘bout everything”
Denver is by far my favorite track on the album and the most revisited song. At this point during my first listen I was still in shock by how purely honest Jack has been. He even admits in this song “the brags in my raps are getting less and less convincing” and you can definitely hear and feel that in his latest work. So to hear the progression of Jack’s artistry go from lies to truth is incredible and I’m a huge fan of his writing style here.
As someone who supported Jack right before he blew up, it is insane to watch someone’s value and ticket price go up in the blink of an eye. Here, you can see how fast fame and fortune change an artist. I wish more artists would talk about this and be as honest as Jack was here. Don’t sugarcoat how it has made you see the world and yourself! It is not a weakness. I understand how hard it is to be open and honest about the downsides to a successful life, people are always gonna be there to say negative things. But celebrities are people at the end of the day.
I also love how Jack did a lot of catching up with his old self; in a few songs, he’s reminiscing about how he used to feel about his life, and what it looked like/entailed. He comes in the second verse discussing how he now feels. The transition he went through from being a regular guy to writing his thoughts in Denver, shows an immense amount of growth. The amount of numbness artists experience after blowing up with success needs to be studied and I hope these people are being checked up on. My only gripe is I wish we got more closure on Denver, but maybe Jack does too.
Track 7 - No Enhancers
Another track that felt like an interlude to me; one thing that stood out here was the possibility of Jack singing on tracks in the future.
Track 8 - It Can’t Be
“‘Especially when the industry could just plant me”
It Can’t Be is an interesting track, to say the least. There have been a lot of feelings of self-doubt and questioning one’s own success scattered throughout this album. But this is the first track where Jack talks back to the voices out there who claim Jack’s success is specifically due to his skin color. Again, I can appreciate the fact that he is one of the very few white rappers to even bring up this perspective. It seems a little hypocritical to poke jabs at his white audience/fans in Common Ground but come back around and say his race has nothing to do with his success. I see both sides, race plays a factor in almost everything in life that’s just a reality-but we can also appreciate and acknowledge all the hard work Jack has done to get to this point.
Track 9 - Blame On Me
“‘He criticized and tested me so I’d test you, I got so much wrongdoing to confess to”
Blame on me is yet another unexcepted record from Jack. To me, the sample is very empty and the beat does not compliment the story-telling going on with this song. I love Jack’s writing here and the vulnerability he displays about his relationship with his brother-I hope after this track the two men can work to have a better relationship.
Track 10 - Questions
“‘Why am I not the superhero I thought?”
The final track of Jackman. feels very open-ended, we're quite literally left with a lot of questions at the end of this and not many answers. This album felt like a journal entry or a therapeutic session, I felt like Jack was talking straight to the listener. It wasn’t an album built for singles or radio play, it was like a catching-up moment between the fans and him and it was definitely needed. I hope Jack continues to write more open, and vulnerable songs and stay true to himself within this industry.
Overall, I give Jackman. a 6/10. I rate albums based on 10 different elements of criteria. Or the 10 Gems as I like to call them. Jack received 6/10 gems and they are as follows:
Lyricism
Enjoyability
Album Artwork
Arrangement
Originality
Beat Selection
Overall Theme
The remaining 3 gems included: Longevity/Replayability, Melody/Harmony, and Cohesiveness. I will most likely only come back to this album to listen to “Denver” again, but nothing else. The melodies and harmonies were somewhat forgettable and I think the samples could’ve been put to use more to create a more creative and memorable track. While Jackman. fits a theme it doesn’t have structure or cohesiveness, which is fine, it feels more like a diary or a look into Jack’s personal notes. Regardless of my opinion, I can’t wait to see what else Jack has to say in the future and if he will continue down this path.
