Local Review: Erasole James – Memories de Miramar

Erasole James
Memories de Miramar

Self-Released
Street: 03.10
Erasole James = Inspectah Deck + Freddie Gibbs + Wifisfuneral

Harrison Montgomery, aka Erasole James of DINE KREW, is back with another solo project, Memories de Miramar. Over the past few years, James has made a name for himself in the local hip-hop scene, has played countless shows and has been featured multiple times in both SLUG and City Weekly. Working with local producers like DJ Bask and Piccolo, Erasole James’ music is homegrown and real, reflecting his life in Salt Lake City. Memories de Miramar is no different.

The EP is much shorter than James’ last solo release, Into the Muh, which came out last year. When compared to his past releases, Memories de Miramar is much more experimental, as Erasole James quickly switches between styles and genres of hip-hop. There are songs on the EP that are very old school, with RZA and MF Doom–style beats and a flow that sounds similar to anyone from Wu-Tang. James throws in a shoutout to his influences on “Get Currency,” saying, “Dine coming for the win, you can bet on this / Erasole feeling like a young Freddie Gibbs.” Erasole has perfected the lyrical, boom-bat style, but he does not focus on it for long in this EP.

The rest of the album feels similar to James’ more recent releases. The songs are short, heavily trap-influenced, and feature James jumping around the tracks with a lot of energy. “Propane” is a particularly hard song where James does not hold back at all. In the track, he describes himself as “A witty lyricist who isn’t lyrically complete,” and it rings very true. He yells his way through the track at many points and sports a bold, experimental meter. Sometimes the leaps Erasole takes in the EP work, and sometimes they fall a bit short. With each song being so quick, it is hard to get a feel for the style that James is inventing, and oftentimes, tracks end so abruptly that it takes one aback.

Still, there is no denying the fact that Erasole James is one of the hardest working rappers in Salt Lake City. He has influenced the culture of local hip-hop as we know it here in Utah, and there is no reason to say that he will not continue to do so in the future. As James says on “Get Currency,” “Second solo project and I ain’t finished / I remain focused on the final product.” –Taylor Hartman