Pink Jagg – American Spirit (Single Review)

Today’s review features Arizona USA based songwriting brother duo Pink Jagg and their new single “American Spirit”, which, if you smoke, you know what the song is about – on the surface, but their new single also has a deeper meaning.

On the surface, “American Spirit” is about the struggle to quit smoking -“The song is a metaphor for trying to break out of toxic cycles — whether it’s nicotine or the creative rut that a lot of white rappers fall into,” say the brothers. “It’s about craving more honesty and depth in a space that often feels one-note. At the same time, it’s a nod to the stuff we grew up on — art, gaming, and all the messy in-betweens.” – Pink Jagg

The duo describes their new track as “A hazy, genre-blurring track that pulls from personal experience, frustration with the culture, and their desert hometown.” The production on the track intentionally “made a point to pull in organic textures that reflect where we’re from.” For example, the duo explains, “There’s a sound under the snare in the hook that we love — it’s actually a Javelina’s jaw snapping shut. They’re these blind desert pigs that use their jaw pop as a defense mechanism or to show they’re annoyed. It felt like the perfect sound to capture the emotion we were chasing.” “We wanted the song to feel like the desert — dry, sharp, but layered.”

The new single was produced by Pink Jagg and mixed by Kevin Mintz. The duo lists their target audience as fans of Dominic Fike, Brockhampton, and King Krule. Finally, the duo says, “‘American Spirit’ is a fresh, thoughtful take on vulnerability, frustration, and creative evolution.”

So let’s have a listen …

I appreciate that the duo posted lyrics to the song with the track on Spotify – it makes it easy to follow along and understand the lyrics. In rap, lyrics are King. I also appreciate the lo-fi nature of the track, and there are numerous interesting instrumental parts throughout – a nice bed to rap over.

There’s a bridge in the song where they rap at double speed, and that’s way cool. I like that the track kicks off with an old TV-radio clip.

I think some of the rhymes are stretched. And rhyming about “poop” – Seriously? The rap is fairly good, but the lyrics could use some polishing. I like that the background beat reminds me a little of Sub Urban’s “Cradles.”

The track is explicit, so that will kill radio play unless a clean version is released, so I would encourage Pink Jagg to do exactly that. Soon.

SCORE/Good: Rap is a highly competitive field these days, and it’s hard to break out of the crowd, but I think Pink Jagg has found a production style that will elevate their game. The track sounds great. My only drawback is that the lyrics need work, and they need to release a clean version to get radio play. Nice job! Much love, Beth

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