North Ave Jax has enlisted A-list producer Jetson Made for a brand new joint single, D.I.Y.A. As infectious as its predecessor, they’re paying homage to one of the defining songs of the 1980s.
Born and raised in Vermont, North Ave Jax’s genre-bending style of rap speaks to the borderless hip-hop world we now live in. Many of his most recognizable songs, like Eastside or Awful, are emotional ballads where you clearly see how he takes pages from the likes of Polo G or Juice WRLD. Still, he saves room on harder cuts like Trust Nobody to show off acrobatic flows straight out of Atlanta- cadences that Gunna or Lil Baby could easily employ.
Beginning to crack into the mainstream, with some of those aforementioned tracks all flirting with the million views mark, the rapper/singer now is at work honing in on a signature sound. D.I.Y.A, released on August 15th, is a strong step in that direction.
D.I.Y.A’s Fresh Take on a Retro Classic
D.I.Y.A.’s chorus is a direct interpolation of Cutting Crew’s 80s smash of the same name. It’s Jetson and Jax’s spin on the recent trend of sampling 80s and 90s standards. Yet, this single has a bit more originality than some of its contemporaries. Those hook melodies and lyrics are really the only thing that’s unabashedly lifted from the power ballad. Instead, the producer uses original guitar lines that lean into that retro aesthetic but still bring punchy, bright energy throughout. And there’s red meat for those familiar with his past work. He holds on to rolling hit-hat sections and 808s that lend D.I.Y.A. the same trap flavor as a What’s Poppin or a SUGE.
For the rapper’s part, he fully embraces the campy melodrama of the original. Cutting Crew frontman Nick Van Eede languished about “broken hearts all around me,” and Jax responds in kind. Starting off with the couplet “Your eyes remind of a blank page / from a love song I never wrote,” he wavers between head-over-heels and unavailable, delivering powerful melodies the whole way.
Throughout his budding career, it’s been obvious that Jax’s sound is one that could easily catch on in the mainstream. And with D.I.Y.A, his most accessible song yet, this might be the chance to do just that.
