Andrew Veeder on June 19th, 2013

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Diverse L.A. producer-cum-rapper Jonwayne is readying his first non-instrumental mixtape as a wordsmith, “Marion Morrison.” The first track to appear is “Notes to Myself,” with the rapper giving himself just that, over a dusty and dreamy vintage J Dilla beat. His rhymes range from over-analytical and self-deprecating, to insightful and uplifting. He slaps himself with, “Understand me perfectly clear / boy, you don’t need a mirror to look at someone you fear / I’m right here.” He humbles himself with, “You need to hear the mind’s a fallacy, mane / your phallus is an asterisk in a galaxy, mane.” And he realizes that, “I’m sayin’, I don’t speak for the laymen / If you can’t see gold in this shit, your axe ain’t swingin.” Jonwayne’s mixtape “Marion Morrison” (also actor John Wayne’s real name) is out soon, with his proper full-length debut “Rap Album One” due in late summer/fall 2013 on Stones Throw Records.

||| Stream: “Notes to Myself” from the “Marion Morrison” mixtape.