Vision

Jern Eye has a fascinating ability to disappear within his own record, with the listener lost in reverie of the ineluctable, sweeping charm of a beat like Illmind's on "Beautiful." So what if the emcee fails to drop a single memorable line on the record? Too often emcees stumble over themselves trying to turn a rewind-worthy verse, losing sight of the beat at hand or, natch, the record as a whole. Vision's top-notch stretch of production begs only accompaniment, which Jern Eye handily provides. In his match-everything flow he doesn't exactly recall T.I., whose verses often feel like organic components of the beat, so much as he lays the same slender, sharp-edged flow atop everything only to find that it matches perfectly, be it the chintzy electro thump of "Pleasure of Love" or the blunted swirl of "Difference." He conducts himself as a true master of ceremonies, never pushing a backstory or angle on the listener. When the record's over, in fact, all we know for certain about Jern Eye is that he loves the new Detroit hip-hop oeuvre of Black Milk, Finale, and Invincible so much that he made a top-notch addition to it — nevermind that he's from California.