Poor People's Day continues
Bigg Jus' trademark fierce lyrical intelligence and oddball musical constructs: one of the strongest and most politically charged songs on the album is "Illustrations of Hieronymus Bosch...That 1467 Shit," which draws canny comparisons between modern society and the Flemish painter's apocalyptic visions, set to a cut-up orchestral setting that sounds like a mutation of early
Art of Noise. Overall, however,
Poor People's Day is the rapper's most immediately accessible album, with less fractured, smoother beats and fewer outlandish arrangements underneath his lyrics. Those lyrics are as uncompromising as ever, but the friendlier settings make
Bigg Jus' position statements and character studies sound easier to get into than ever before, which increases their strength considerably. Easily his best solo record,
Poor People's Day is the equal of any of
Bigg Jus' '90s records with
Company Flow. ~ Stewart Mason