The Junch: Lost in Boston Review

Artist: The Junch
Album: Lost in Boston
Label: Unsigned
September 17, 2007

Indie Mexican-Japanese-American rapper The Junch has arrived to fill the growing gap between the thug-life players and the conscious haters. While not about guns and jewelry, he doesn’t waste his breath talking about those who are. The Junch merely verbalizes about what he knows: the ups and downs of being just another (left-handed Mexican-Japanese-American) person trying to make it in this crazy world.

The Junch grew up in Los Angeles listening to the radio every night before he went to sleep, giving his dreams the colorful soundtracks of De La Soul, Biz Markie and the Beastie Boys. Sometime in high school, he picked up a habit of writing poems on his female friends’ birthday cards. This planted the seeds of getting a personal message across through rhyme. After school, he moved to Japan for a year to get a taste of the world beyond the shores of California. While in Japan, The Junch was free from the influences of commercial rap music on American radio and music video shows. So, he began to cultivate his own musical tastes and began digging back into the old school of rap: Run DMC, Public Enemy, Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, even NWA. He started sharing this music with some friends he made in Japan and in turn, they shared some Japanese music with him. They started a band, Golion, to play the music they liked with The Junch on vocals. Eventually, he started to write his own lyrics using the poetry skills he had honed over the past several years. This experience culminated in a performance at the Gorilla House, where a live recording was made that has been downloaded by people around the world.

After Japan, The Junch moved to Boston where he continued this new found passion by forming a new band, A Spark In The Dark, performing around Cambridge and collaborating with local artists. With every show, The Junch began to gain more confidence and stage presence. Notable shows include performances at Brother Jimmy’s in Cambridge (the former House of Blues), the All Asia Cafe, and a Harvard Law School diversity fair. The Junch also gained recording experience recording demos with the band and a solo mix-tape entitled Lost in Boston.

Comparing The Junch to another rapper is quite near impossible, as he lacks the politics of MC Paul Barman, the flashiness of Jay-Z, and the bitches and hos of Chamillionaire. Lost in Boston doesn’t even possess the egoistic mentality that most rappers have that insinuates that they’re the best. In fact, in his song “Legend”, he even lists virtually every rapper known to man and basically divulges how he’s not better than them or anyone, for that matter. “I guess it’s clear that I will never be the best, but there is one thing I can do better than the rest…That is to be me, I am completely free to be the best me I can be see. It doesn’t mean of course, I won’t give it a shot, going for the top with every rhyme, I give it all I got. I just recognize raw talent and that I lack this, so I just make up for it with practice, practice, practice.”

Finally, rap music for those of us with penchants for Mexican-Japanese-American old-school flavor paired with low self-esteem!

The Junch is corny and soft, but in an endearing way. I am reminded of the public service raps that were supposed to be “cool” tools of education when I was in elementary school. “Rap the Facts”, anyone? “The nines, are so divine! Eighty-one, is nine-times-nine. The nines, they are so fine!” Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit; he’s no Mr. T or anything (“I pity the foo who talks to strangers!”), but there is quite a lack of politics, sex, and the growing up on the streets talk of most rap today. According to him (and the reason I’m not allowed to divulge his real name), “It’s funny…sometimes I feel like a superhero. Mild-mannered 9-to-5-er by day, friendly-neighborhood rapper by night. My co-workers don’t know about my rapping, and my rapping peers don’t know what I do to pay the bills.” So, it is up to me, Jessica P. Wallin, to keep Super Junch’s identity a secret!

“I’m not a thug, so I’m not going to pretend to be one in the recording studio,” explains The Junch. “I find it very funny when a rapper is about to perform a song at a show and says, ‘hey, I’m bringing something new to the game’ right before getting into a song about chicks, guns, and/or jewelry. My rap is not aggressive like most other rappers, but I’m just expressing how I feel. And I think there are a lot of people out there [who] like rap but got turned off by all the wannabe gangsters.”

He goes on to say, “so here I am, just talking about life from my unique perspective and hopefully people can relate to what I have to say. And yeah, I don’t have a ‘rapping’ voice, but a lot of people say Bob Dylan wasn’t a great singer. Now, I’m not trying to put myself anywhere on his level, but I am inspired because I may not have the ‘voice’ but at least I have something to say. A breath of fresh air…a spark in the dark. I find it such a waste that all these rappers have great voices and lyrical delivery, but use these gifts to talk about nothing that inspires people or helps them do something positive with their lives or at least bring something unique to the world.” Word!

The beats are extremely basic, but The Junch has one thing to offer, his heart. And it’s his sincerity that could very well likely catapult him into the hearts of America. I’m sure the girls with poetic birthday cards undeniably feel very proud.

http://www.thejunch.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thejunch

buy it at insound!