DISCLAIMER: IgnoRANT is not for the pansy class. Middle-aged white dudes, beware. This album should be blasted in residential neighborhoods at peak volume. Anything else is unacceptable.
On her latest album, IgnoRANT, MC Racquel Jones weaponizes stereotypes against women and hurls them in the other direction. She’s not afraid to puncture an existing wound or stab a man fresh off a new transgression. The trip-hip, R&B, calypso, and electronic hip hop album is hyper-conscious, hyper-sexual, and highly stimulating. Her daggers are her words, the music a sounding board for higher frequencies of high-speed voltage to bounce off of, and Racquel has the power to flip the switch.
“Manic” gives off mucha Latina vibes (Maybe she borrowed a cue from Saudade, the Bossa Nova album by Thievery Corporation), and the music sucks you into a dream, and you’re losing your footing on a winding staircase that keeps spiraling and spiraling, never reaching the floor. The feeling of insomnia, of sleep walking, a never-ending problem.
“Siren! Violent!” we hear Ms. Jones shriek on “Arrogant,” the sixth track on IgnoRANT. With a snarl not to be messed with, Jones brings memories of Steflon Don, Foxy Brown, and Lil Kim rolled into one song, proving that the goddess MCs of today’s generation can’t be pigeonholed into one sound, one vibe. They can be girly AND rough around the edges. Like manicures AND slamming a six-pack down. They can be angry and don’t have to apologize for it.
“Queen,” the final track, is a discotheque of epic proportions. Ms. Jones flaunts her crown in the video proudly, and here, pride is celebration, not perceived as arrogance. She calls on other women to show up as they are, without fear of consequence, and names off famous icons, queens, and goddesses in history who have owned their shit. That’s a beautiful message: No competition, only celebration. All in the name of fierce women.
IgnoRANT is the opposite of its name. It’s the got-damn truth. It’s an invocation. This is a philosophical work of art by Ms. Jones, who celebrates her Jamaican and Black roots and addresses issues with religion, on the album. This is not your ordinary dance album. It’s deeply personal, and in listening, you can feel the blood and sweat that was poured into its creation. Bravo, Ms. Jones, Bravo.
For the full album, listen here.
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