If albums are typically a journey, then Najee Janey wanted his new release to be an especially rollicking straight-shot of storytelling.
As Is, the uncut and unmastered one-track EP from the Boston artist, dropped last week (June 10), rolling up five creative parts into one unified yet varied 18-minute track. It’s a deliberate, no-skips method for delivering Janey’s message in a streamlined listening experience — plus a novel form of focused artistic expression.
“I wanted to do something different with this body of work — something out of the norm where I could showcase my art in the simplest yet creative way,” Janey tells Vanyaland. “The EP is incredibly driven and constant so I felt like splitting it up into individual tracks would’ve taken the foot off the gas for the listener. The inspiration came from the listening experience you get when dropping the needle on a vinyl record. There’s no room to skip or fast forward, just sit back and consume and appreciate the art as it was intended to be.”
The EP arrives roughly six months after his last effort, another EP called The Purple Earth Theory released in December 2019, right before his performance at the Boston Music Awards. But where The Purple Earth Theory demonstrated a silky-smooth side of Janey’s talent, As Is digs deeper with its non-stop pace and reveals an R&B rampage of hard-hitting sound.
Despite being unmixed, As Is sounds cohesive already, but that’s not the point; the point of As Is suggests that all is far from well in the world, well, “as is.” Enter the aforementioned reality-puncturing element.
“As for what inspired this project, I needed to find an outlet for my rage,” Janey adds. “I needed to create a piece that was sharp enough to puncture people’s souls that too felt angry with all that’s going on in the world. Sometimes people need a voice to represent themselves. All five songs symbolically matched. I wanted to fight back with my words but still push myself creatively. I just want my music to be heard by everyone.”
Press play on As Is below.