Review: Kingdom of Fear [A Jehst produced album] [YNR Recordings]

“Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes.”


Review by Suave Debonair

When asked to review the new Jehst produced YNR project I was excited, as Jehsts' previous project ‘The Dragon of an Ordinary Family’ has been on heavy rotation in my headphones since it dropped.

On ‘Kingdom of Fear’ although Jehst chips in with rhymes on a few tracks he leaves the lions share to YNRs unnamed lyricists that he describes as “a severely disturbed individual”. Now I have a pretty safe idea who this dude is but I’m gonna leave you lot to work it out yourselves.

What you need to know is, this project is something a little different - both in its concept and execution. The album itself takes inspiration from the widely revered author Hunter S Thompson's book ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. An account of a drug fuelled escapade in America's most sin filled city, cinematically portrayed in 1998 with Jonny Depp taking the role of Thompson.

“There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”


With help from his YNR brethren, Jehst manages to paint out the most banging of desert acid trip soundscapes, moving shakily between uppers and downers in a sun blistered form, staying true to its inspiration. The bars are all on a level as high as a hit of pure adrenaline, dragging the listener kicking and screaming through casino doors and cackling as you stumble off the turntable carousel in a dumb stupor. All emcees that make an appearance here bring their 'A' game and the fact that this was all done in the space of around 2 weeks makes it more remarkable!

All in all ‘Kingdom of Fear’ shows a great amount of creativity, and further cements YNR's reputation as a leading force in the British hip hop spectrum. It’s also a great salute to Hunter S Thompson - a man that lived fast and had his ashes sent skyward in a fire work!

Go cop ‘Kingdom of Fear’ on it’s release on October 15th

More info: WWW.YNR-PRODUCTIONS.CO.UK