ALBUM REVIEW: Joey Valence & Brae – ‘NO HANDS’

No, you’re right—this is coming very soon after the last. Probably intentionally, too, given that the nature of Joey Valence & Brae—a highly online act catapulted to insta-success through their own virality—lends itself to the grindset way of pumping out new music incredibly quickly. The difference is that they feel as though they can sustain it. As established on PUNK TACTICS, their entire brand is a pair of loud, brash voiceboxes for the colliding fronts of absolute bravado and nerd references, not exactly requiring impeccable creative flexibility. Finish that with an approach to hip-hop that’s equally defined by its brusqueness (as well as the homegrown feel of it all), and a new album less than a year after their first isn’t that implausible.

However, it does implicitly preclude the notion of any sort of advancement. You could argue that Joey Valence & Brae would do that on their own regardless, but the stigma of diminished returns is not nothing. If it can happen to far bigger and more professionally connected acts (and it frequently does), then two guys independently making pretty haphazard Beastie Boys pastiches should be steamrolled immediately, right? Well…not necessarily. There’s a chance, albeit about as slim of one as any other act with a firm grip on their craft and how to work it. That is to say, NO HANDS is not only good enough to justify Joey Valence & Brae’s debut not being a fluke by any stretch, but also that they might just a legit great act, full stop. For an album under these circumstances, in this creative lane, that sounds like this specifically, it genuinely might be as good as it gets.

It doesn’t take long to fully understand why, as an act whose material subsists squarely on its own entertainment value has ways of nailing these things down. The pair are still running on rocket fuel with the same slab-cracking dynamism that feels immutably built to last. Joey Valence has his squawking bray; Brae is deeper and more authoritative but no less elasticated; put together, the uncannily Beastie Boys feel is as good as it ever was. The approach couldn’t be simpler, nor more effective when put to use. Neither has to be a particularly layered or complex spitter when they can get away with top-shelf jock-jams in LIKE A PUNK and THE BADDEST.

That was also true of PUNK TACTICS; on NO HANDS, there’s a bit more going on, on top of that. Not an excessive amount, but enough to hopefully unhitch Joey Valence & Brae from any one-trick pony allegations that never totally held up in the first place. The glimmers of dance music return in the breakbeat interlude on BUSSIT and the faded Jersey club flip on OK, though still predominantly as the window dressing they always were. More noteworthy is how far the breadth of hip-hop goes, as the title track affixes a smooth horn loop to its dusty backpack-rap beat, and WHERE U FROM and WHAT U NEED come coated in a layer of Y2K glitter.

They’re the obviously right angles for such a homespun sound to evolve into and maintain its small, self-produced hallmarks. Deliberate cheapness is part of the point, after all, and it’s kept maintained enough to where it’s never distracting. Furthermore—and keeping pace with where Joey Valence & Brae have found their greatest successes—there’s still a lot done within that mould. The biggest is obviously the Danny Brown feature on PACKAPUNCH, mirroring Logic’s appearance last time as the inexplicably huge rapper finding themselves on an album like this, and although he’s far from his wildest state, the name alone being attached to NO HANDS is an impressive get.

Perhaps you could call that another point in favour of Joey Valence & Brae being ‘legitimate’ rappers, though that’s not exactly a necessity. They don’t feel like a conventional hip-hop act to begin with—never have, honestly—and are therefore a lot more flexible when it comes to letting a cornier comedy side slide. It’s probably because of how vigorously they both go for it that leaves it far more palatable; a line like “Born with so much sauce / I think I was a fucking Stromboli in my past life” works a lot better when you’re smashed over the head with it. Commitment to the bit also can’t be ignored. There are fewer meme samples and comic book references than last time, but that’s not assuaging the feel of a pair of abject dorks trying with all their might to sound tough. Not that that’s a criticism at all, mind; it’s what the brand is based on. No one else in any form of hip-hop is throwing around multiple Ben 10 references on their album, including a whole song called OMNITRIX, and you wouldn’t have it any other way, would you?

And thus, Joey Valence & Brae continue to race ahead on a premise they’ve become total masters of. As far as quality goes, their hip-hop riding a serious sugar high is in a field of one as it is, and NO HANDS is arguably an even better representation of it. Rarely is an album so dead-set on its mission ignorant fun that trips head over heels to get there, and yet Joey Valence & Brae are two for two at it. And while it’s not something that requires extensive analysis or thread-pulling to get the most of, a handful of listens should convince anyone that this is a nailed-on riot. It isn’t the first time, and if this track record continues, it certainly won’t be the last.

For fans of: Beastie Boys, The Prodigy, Cypress Hill

‘NO HANDS’ by Joey Valence & Brae is out now on JVB Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall