Jesse Medina is an up-and-coming San Jose, CA-born, Bay Area-based emcee whose life experience has helped influence him and his sound. Growing up, he moved from plan to place and was raised by various family members in different socioeconomic situations and different environments, frequently hanging out with skaters, stoners, hippies, punk rockers and others, and as a result he has an incredibly unique style. To celebrate his upcoming collaboration with Granjer Records, Medina released a new single, “Chasin’ Franklin,” featuring a guest spot from the renowned Kool Keith — and the track features the emcees rhyming over slurring and sloshing Mr. Aeks production comprised of layers of bleating horns, sputtering boom bap beats.
Unsurprisingly, the drunkenly slurring track is specifically meant to be a celebration of excess and hedonism as both emcees make references to drug use, drinking, womanizing and the like, while also talking about how dope they are as emcees. Naturally, Kool Keith’s verse will further cement the legend’s reputation for crafting uncannily surreal, out of left field verses with complex inner and outer rhyme schemes, while Medina’s fiery verses manage to weave in and out of the mix like a wobbling drunk. But underneath that, the song also serves as a reminder of several different yet necessary things — namely that there are a number of artists and producers, who are actively challenging and pushing the boundaries of what hip hop should sound like, and perhaps more important that dope emcees can spit bars over anything and it’ll be pretty fucking amazing.
