Crossworm has officially signed J. Reno to Dirtcore Music. It’s hard to deny his legacy and impact on hip hop, especially the wicked shit. Dubbed the “Canadian Wickedshit King” by Violent J of the Insane Clown Posse himself, J. Reno & Crossworm share a 20 year history having come front the same city & respective scenes in their early years. J. Reno is a Tunnel Runners alumni, a WFuckOff Radio alumni with his show “Canadian Bakin” & a member of Mission: Infect. This makes him the 3rd M:I member to sign with Dirtcore following Madd Maxxx & Mumm Ra. He boasts an impressive 3M+ streams across all platforms & multiple tours, festivals & spot dates with artists like Ice Cube, Jelly Roll, ICP, Tech N9ne, Madchild, D12, Obie Trice, King Gordy, The Dayton Family, Esham & more. Reno recently teamed up with Madd Maxxx to produce half of the Dirtcore 24 EP, as well as co-producing the “Gone” remix with Crossworm for Samson Samson. Crossworm recalls “I’ve known J for over 20 years & this is something I would have offered sooner, but the timing was finally right for both of us.” In addition to producing for Dirtcore projects, we have a new solo record in the works for J. Reno for which “Out the Dirt” here serves as the lead single to & a group project we’re excited to announce soon. Over the past month, J. Reno & Crossworm have already started working on new production material for his new record as well as some other projects currently in development. Crossworm further elaborated “When J. Reno & I co-produce together, something creatively amazing happens & it’s a chemistry I don’t think I can do without. The fans will see”.
This is the 6th EP from Brockton, Massachusetts emcee Madd Maxxx. A member of the Mission: Infect collective, he’s also released a few full-lengths along with a mixtape & his previous 5 EPs on his own, with the last LP being his 3rd album albeit Dirtcore Music debut Kaleidoscope becoming the strongest body of work he’s ever made thus far & he’s returning on his born day once again condensing Dirtcore 24 down to a 5 track 12 & a half minute offering preluding a future full-length in the future at some point I presume.
After the “Keep It Dirtcore” intro, the first song “Terrifying” produced by J. Reno starts the EP shooting for a trap vibe instrumentally telling us why his shit he cold whereas “Diary of a Madd Man” switches into the boom bap lane taking aim at every juggalo rapper who thinks they can body him when he’s right. “Shinobi Stance” works in some synths as well as kicks & snares from Dirtcore Music founder Crossworm continuing to deliver hardcore lyricism while the closer “Rat Race” ruggedly talks about Dirtcore being the leaders of the hip hop zombie horde.
M:I just put out their magnificent comeback EP arM:Igeddon earlier this spring & not only is it my favorite EP of Maxxx’, but I’ll even argue it’s right behind Kaleidoscope from last year in being the 2 go-tos if you wanna get into Madd Maxxx’ solo work. Crossworm & J. Reno both kill their respective shares of Dirtcore 24’s production & Maxxx refrains from having any guests joining him so he can hold down the lyrical side of things on his own, to which he succeeds at. Has me more intrigued about fellow Mission: Infect member Mumm Ra’s upcoming album albeit Dirtcore Music debut Autogod in a couple weeks.
