My Spilt Milk article by Alex Rawls
“One of the premises of the album is that it’s cool to be yourself.”
Hip-hop artist Jonathan Brown would say that. His gig is to be as himself as possible, an idea that underlies the title his sixth release, Aggressively Vulnerable, which dropped earlier this summer. Musically, he has staked out a very specific place, subscribing to old school rap values balanced with an MFA holder’s belief in poetry. Brown has the degrees including an MFA from University of New Orleans, and even if you didn’t know that, you’d guess it because he released a limited edition poetry book with the lyrics to the songs to accompany Aggressively Vulnerable’s release.