As promised the other day when “Battle Cry” leaked, Joell Ortiz has delivered the Farewell Summer EP today, a 6-track prelude to his upcoming projects, including his YAOWA mixtape and the long-awaited Free Agent album.
“Battle Cry,” a 100-bar long verbal onslaught produced by The Audible Doctor (Brown Bag AllStars), continues a fairly steady, and consistent, flow of releases from Joell Ortiz, one of the more active artists-without-an-actual-album-out at the moment. From his “Nissan, Honda, Chevy” and “Lemonade” remakes, to his showstopping performances, intense radio freestyles to Farewell Summer, it continues to be obvious why Joell Ortiz was cited in the inaugural column in our “5 Reasons Why NY Hip Hop Doesn’t Suck” series.
Production on Farewell Summer includes heavyweights such as DJ Premier (who also produced Ortiz’ “Project Boy“), Statik Selektah, Frank Dukes and Don Cannon. Guest appearances include Sheek Louch, Talib Kweli, Brother Ali and Jean Grae (also one of our “5 Reasons Why NY Hip Hop Doesn’t Suck“). Farewell Summer was mixed by Frequency.
Download/Listen: Joell Ortiz – Farewell Summer [EP]