Jimmy Prime

Bleeding Bull

BY Scott GlaysherPublished Mar 29, 2017

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Jimmy Prime has been low-key refining the now-infamous "Toronto sound" for a few years now. Back before everyone from Mississauga to Pickering was making lo-fi trap ballads, Jimmy and his Prime Boys were pioneering dabbling in those underwater-sounding sonics that are so popular today. He's kept an extremely low profile over these active years, increasing his stoic aesthetic and night crawler vibe.
 
Bleeding Bull is his latest offering, and he again manages to maintain his minimalist brand over these half a dozen tracks, all of which contain trickling keys and atmospheric backdrops. Jimmy's heavy use of Auto-Tune continues to rhythmically jumble his words, creating a sound that weaves throughout the beats and provides something like a beat of its own.
 
More than other projects, Bleeding Bull doesn't work on furthering Jimmy's narrative; it feels a little like a soundtrack to his life. That said, it's exciting enough not to put you to sleep, but not quite intriguing enough for listeners to stop what they're doing and listen; it's elevator music, if the elevator was filled with degenerates living luxuriously and doing drugs with equally immoral women. By the sounds of it, that's how Jimmy likes it.
 
On "My Way," he raps: "Ay, come do it my way / Smoking blunts on the highway / Making money to fly away / I ain't slept in like five days." It pretty sums up his general sentiment towards the world, manoeuvres inside. There's tons of lavish lifestyle talk that gets a little redundant — even after only 18 minutes of music — but Jimmy's clearly trying to prove a point: He earned this desired spot, despite not always broadcasting it to the world.
 
The pinnacle here is "Digital Money," which features Canadian hot commodity Murda Beatz lending his talents to the track. The song, which samples fellow Canadian rapper/singer Roy Wood$' song "Jealousy," finds Jimmy in rare form as he rips a two-dozen bar verse that ends thusly: "Don't you know I try / Don't you know how I / Care so much I die?" It's a simple line that's poetic nonetheless.
 
Jimmy Prime didn't craft a classic or even his best work to date here, but he's stayed true to his sound — something he holds dear. Don't expect any of this project to pop up on the radio anytime soon, but if attending a dark, late night comedown function, be prepared to hear it on repeat.
(Independent)

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