Howling out of the silence with an ominous tonal presence that sounds more like a wail of a siren than it does anything deliberately melodic and instrumental, we find the opening bars of Jay Bang’s new single “On Sight” waiting to crush us with indulgence and textural presence both underexploited by the vast majority of her rivals on the east and west coasts.
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Here, she’s unfurling a somewhat surreal crusher of a track that brings Oz the Hitmaker into the studio for a little extra fun, and though the instrumentation backing her up is perhaps just as provocative an element as any of her actual lyrics are, neither component of this song are quite as powerful as her actual delivery is. If confidence is the cornerstone of all true success in the hip-hop genre, Jay Bang is an indie rapper that needs to be considered one of the most elite players in all of her scene – if not the country at the moment. She doesn’t back down from the challenge of sounding fresh, original, and deadly with the mic in this performance, but instead offers us some insight into just how profound an artist she has undisputedly become.
Jay Bang’s breathy vocal delivery near the climax of “On Sight” is quite alluring and unsubtle in its ultimately menacing demeanor, and in more ways than one I think it can be credited for maximizing the tension of the backend here. Oz the Hitmaker’s contribution to the verses adds some necessary catharsis at a point in the song where it feels like the bassline needs some depressurization from the vocal in order to keep from ripping through our speakers entirely, but at no time does he ever attempt to steal the thunder away from his female counterpart in this piece.
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Despite the rather long running time of four minutes and change (compared to a lot of the two-minute thrashers I’ve been reviewing out of the American underground all spring long), everything in “On Sight” flows smoothly and teases us with hypnotic attributes most rappers would leave on the sidelines in a single as beefy as this one is. It only makes things more interesting when this vixen is in the booth though, and that’s undeniable no matter how you look at her new single.
I just heard “On Sight” for the first time a couple of days ago, but if it can pick up a little bit of steam online and make its way onto a few credible college radio-supported playlists between now and the start of summer, I have a feeling it’s going to bring a lot more praise and hard-earned attention to the music, artistry and growing brand of Jay Bang. She’s a multi-hyphenate in a time that is starting to become dominated by the rise of female rappers around the country, and with the skillset she demonstrates in this all-new release, it’s clear she has plans on scaling the hierarchy she’s joined no matter what gets in her way.
Jodi Marxbury