100 Favorites Reviewed - [1998] J. Smooth: "Soul"

J. Smooth
Soul
1998¹
Genre: Drum-n-bass mixtape

I was never very good at identifying the difficult-to-distinguish multitude of drum-n-bass subgenres. Was it techstep? Or darkstep? Breakcore? I didn’t concern myself too much with figuring out what type of drum-n-bass mixtapes I was buying, because I generally enjoyed it all.

One of my all-time favorites came courtesy of Philadelphia’s J. Smooth. I picked up Soul in 1998 on (purple!) cassette, probably from 611 Records. It seems to generally be classified as “East Coast jump up” and “hard step jungle” which… yeah, sounds good. It’s a high energy blend of jungle, drum-n-bass, and hip-hop and it got plenty of rotation on my Walkman in the summer of 1998.

On side A (“The Funk Essential”), J. Smooth brings high energy scratches overtop of hip-hop tracks like Big Daddy Kane’s “Here Come Kane, Scoob, and Scrap” (an interesting choice that works) and jungle-ized versions of Jungle Brothers selections “Brain” and “Jungle Brother."² The JBs' flow matches drum-n-bass rhythms as much as a James Brown loop. While vocals from Camp Lo and the Alkaholiks may slip a bit off beat at times, the Jungle Brothers sound like their tracks were made for remixing. There’s a nice mix of hip-hop (Redman, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, and even some rare old school courtesy of Sir Fresh & DJ Critical) alongside driving drum-n-bass from Aphrodite, EPS & 2 Vibe (who manage to make Da Brat’s “Funkdafied” sound dope), and J. Smooth himself.

Side B (“Smoothed Out Funk from the Philly Flipside”) has some R&B influence by way of SWV and Total, but also the Beanuts, Organized Konfusion, and Jay-Zee and a ton of white label and promo tunes. Knowing exactly who is behind what tracks can be a bit tricky, as even J. Smooth’s own track listing has a lot of “?“s.

The 1990s were peak mixtape-era. CD mixers were generally not used by hip-hop/electronica DJs and Serato wasn’t even a thought yet. No shade to those technologies, but DJs in the 90s came with a deep knowledge of their vinyl and their mixes were experimental, funky, and filled with personality. I know this puts me firmly in shaking-fist-at-cloud territory, but so be it. Mixtapes were the primary method so many of us used to check out lots of new music at once, particularly in areas where radio shows were not as prevalent. DJs knew these tapes were going to be in heavy rotation (versus today, where a Mixcloud link may get passed around but rarely re-listened to). They knew their reputation could be made by a classic mixtape with world premieres, bespoke remixes, or exclusive freestyles, and the effort that was put in really showed. Soul very much falls into that category. It’s well remembered among fans, particularly from the Philly area, and it holds up today as a prime example of what a DJ could do with two turntables, a 90-minute blank tape, and a bunch of white label vinyl.

Recommended tracks: That’s not how mixtapes work. Hit play and let it roll.

Originally published July 25, 2025.