Track listing: Sweet Crystals, Roll with Whatever, Shining Stars, I Could Get You Back, Lookest Like, Pleasantries, Like Boom It's Doom, Quantitative Lingo (Radio Edit), Last Chance, Kinda Luv IT, Pies & Leather, GOD's Love 2

Jah-Femi is back! Earlier this year we reviewed his EP The Hard Way and marveled at his blunt straight-forward lyrical delivery against the RnB backdrop of that record. Then on November 28, 2025 he released this follow-up, the 12-track album Of Hip-Hop Alternative, The First Chronicle: Thus It Began.

Of Hip-Hop Alternative is a much more ambitious album with a cutting edge, compelling twist! Jah-Femi is a very real, very human artist. And he enlisted the talents of a number of also very real, very human musicians to bring these songs to life. But Jah is also a prolific creator--music, poetry, 3D animation--and experiments with all manner of new ideas and technology.

Jah's flow has become much more definitive and natural over the course of this year. He's still got that in-your-face Biz Markie sort of delivery that doesn't feign a particular melody line. The focus is on lyrical delivery.

The standout track is "I Could Get You Back." It's got a lo-fi vibe a la early Roots. Other tracks like the opener "Sweet Crystals" bring in some orchestration in the backing tracks. "Like Boom It's Doom" is a another strong track, reminds me of a track from the Mo' Better Blues Spike Lee Joint film--a little jazz, a little Hip-Hop, bringing the two genres together in a great mellow vibe.

If Of Hip-Hop Alternative is truly Jah Femi's first chronicle / beginning into his more Hip-Hop-leaning songwriting and recording projects, there's something here to keep an eye on! You hear in these songs his experience as a poet and his affinity for storytelling.

You can find Of Hip-Hop Alternative, The First Chronicle: Thus It Began and more of Jah-Femi's music at:

jahfemitelewa.com/music/7/