Release Date: 23 January 2026
Song Count: 15
Duration: 35 minutes, 49 seconds
Rating: 7.6/10
Description:
Song Count: 15
Duration: 35 minutes, 49 seconds
Rating: 7.6/10
Description:
It is time for some weekly hip-hop, and this time we have an artist I have actually had minor amounts of exposure to prior - Jason Mills, known more commonly as Jay IDK or simply .idk., with his most recent album from the start of the year. Even The Devil Smiles, abbreviated as e.t.d.s., is a mixtape with a stacked line-up of both collaborating artists and dynamic hip-hop tracks ready to display the rapping capabilities of the Maryland-raised artist. Being representative of his life and artistic journey in several stages, the album touches on some of the highest and lowest points of the events that have made up Mills as a person and compiles it into a fascinating record.
Fifteen tracks of powerful backdrops and samples as well as snappy deliveries from both IDK as the star of the show and his collaborators approach the stage to make up a unique listening experience for 35 minutes. From samples of established big names in the scene to cameos from artists on the rise, there is a colourful variety in voices and styles across every distinct moment, making a lot of the contents of the album positively memorable. Mills comes in with both plenty of charisma and authenticity within his performance, matching the bombastic nature of the production and instrumentation behind his lines with the flow, rhythm, intonation and lyricism that he uses.
While the genre IDK finds himself in is one filled with works of varying levels of quality, Even The Devil Smiles stands out as one of the most transformative hip-hop albums that have come out in immediate times for both reasons that are simple to spot and ones that require deeper ingestion of its contents. This marks the truest form of self-expression from a rapper with heaps of skills to make it further in the music industry, and it deserves commendation for its bright strengths and consistency as a musical package. An uncommon sight for me to sing the praises of a genre that has always had a hit-or-miss sort of streak, but this was a pleasant breath of fresh air in that regard for sure.