One underrated form of music, in my humble opinion, is the EP. Usually anywhere between 5 and 10 tracks, EPs are quick-hitting projects meant to pique the listeners' interest. ChrisJay is an emcee by way of Toronto, Canada. I was introduced to her through Die-Rek’s debut album The Die-Version Project back in 2011. She was actually one of my favorite guest features on the project and was hoping we’d hear something from her soon. Although that didn’t happen, here we are in 2016 with an EP from the talented lyricist. Despite being an EP, ChrisJay’s debut The Day She Ran Away is a calculated project that takes you on an emotional journey.
“I’m impressed by the complexity of the female soul, the words we say, the way we say them and the power in our sayings…they move me” opens up the project, no beat in the background, just ChrisJay with her words. It's a quick intro that’s less than a minute, but ChrisJay pulls you in with her cadence and her ability to speak directly to the listener. After the spoken word introduction, we cut to “Break A Dawn.” Die-Rek produced this cut (and all but “High” on this EP) and the heavenly soundscape he created fits ChrisJay’s voice and flow like a glove. ChrisJay flows confidently over the track exposing herself and her experiences. Despite the struggle, despite the pain from these experiences, ChrisJay still loves herself. And it’s this type of music that's meant to uplift us.
Like I said at the beginning of this, The Day She Ran Away is an emotional journey. The first half of the EP is more about the lows of life and how we deal with them. “Find Your Way” seemed like the low point emotionally on the EP, we dive deeper into ChrisJay’s story. We hear about family history and how that affected our artist, but again the name of this EP is triumph. Before we hit another spoken word interlude, we get “Free Fall.” To me, this track is ChrisJay’s resurgence from everything we’ve learned about the emcee from the first couple of tracks. My favorite line of the whole project is “Cuz Elijah was a man just like us/I mean he prayed just like us/He cursed the day just like us/He tried to run from God but only ran into his love/Where his living was confirmed” so often we feel less than for our reactions to our problems, but those before us reacted the same way. Life can be frustrating, depressing and the like to the point where we question everything, but ChrisJay tells us to have faith and we’ll push through our problems.
We’re given another spoken word piece with “Low,” and this piece ties together the entire project. We then move to the last two tracks “High” and “Go,” the former seemingly being ChrisJay’s current state. Obviously I could be wrong, but we hear of the person that provides her high and it’s a shift for the short EP. “High” was produced by Cream of Beats and the jazzy guitar riff will have you dancing and jamming wherever you’re at. The Day She Ran Away is a stellar introduction to an emcee that I’m praying we hear much more from in the coming years. Being able to execute a loose concept album in seven tracks is not an easy feat. I left this project feeling positive about the life around me despite circumstances. ChrisJay calls us all to move and “Go” for ours no matter what stands in our way. I strongly suggest scooping this up to close out your 2016, you’ll enter 2017 much more confident in the magic we all hold.
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