Jesse Abraham is a rapper. Hilariously, he doesn’t fit the “rapper lexicon” of stereotypes. The Manhattan representative wears many hats inside the hip hop arena serving as a producer, emcee, marketing consultant, and concert organizer. Heck, he even owns a tutoring company. His new album, I Am Water, will provide proceeds for Charity Water, an organization that works to bring clean water to developing countries. Thus, a man of many facets decides to make hip hop music for the sake of being a source of inspiration.

After listening to I Am Water, I must say that his work is good. However, some technical issues keep this album from being great. There are no issues with lyricism. With songs like “I Ain’t Shit – I’m The Shit”, “Not A Ghost Anymore”, and “1der 2der”, Abraham does have something worthwhile to say. He gets into waxing poetic about his stance on hip hop, being a man of his people, and the actualization of one’s humanity.

A lot of the issues come from his flow as well as some minor missteps. The entire song “Brush Your Teeth” just doesn’t work with its rhymes, chorus, and the production. “Goddamn Superhero Penguin” doesn’t work out fully either because the production is really muted-sounding. To go even further, the chorus on “The Scene” was slightly lacking as it could have done without the warped voice saying “the scene”. Therefore, there are issues with I Am Water that detract from the total package.

I’m proud of I Am Water, however, I just wish it were done a little better. Some of the songs come across as dope, while others make missteps through execution, production, or overall concept. In the end, I Am Water is a good listen; I’m just not sure how many listens it will garner after the first.