Jack the Rapper is a Halifax based rapper who has recently released a new album titled The Impossible Job.

By Jane Howkins

The onstage name makes it sound as though Jack the Rapper is making music as a parody of the rap genre, and the Yorkshire accent he raps in doesn’t really help the situation. However, despite all that Jack is a young man very serious about his musical career, as this album shows.

He’s recently gained a bit of traction in the musical world, due to several performances for BBC Introducing, with his song Name Down even being chosen as their track of the week, and from listening to the album, we can certainly hear why. What’s interesting about Jack’s music is that the backing instrumentation isn’t always what you might typically expect in such a genre. He uses a lot of ‘real’ instruments, with guitar riffs and rock rhythms backing up most of the songs, with Golden being one particular example of this.

Whilst there is a satirical element to things, he seems to also sing about more serious topics, with Jack’s tracks broken up by funny skits – perhaps Eminem is an influence on Jack, as that’s something he is known for doing too. There’s something very British about the moments of humour on The Impossible Job. It’s very much an album created by a Yorkshireman, which is something that listeners from the area will probably pick up on.

The Impossible Job is a fun album from a local lad, combining humour and serious topics together to create a great, British rap album. Looks like it wasn’t such an impossible job for Jack, after all!