Fusing
Eastern & Western music, theater and performance art rabble-rousing,
Juha is a funky pie bursting at the seams with irresistible beats
and attitude.
Try to peg down Juha... and you'll likely be so far left field
or right field or not even in a field at all. If anything, Juha
is the brilliant corsage bobbing in the junk-strewn waters of hip
hop... one of the most intriguing imports in a very long time.
Juha is able to seamlessly walk the line between gaiety and
gravity. A sprawling, rollicking, giddily theatrical and complicated tapestry of words, sounds and ideas… smartly uses the race and identity conflicts of the Middle East as a metaphor and jump-off point for intensely complicated conversation. A bit of everything gets covered here, from dialogues on misogyny and sexism among the "revolutionary activist" hip-hop set to the consequence of militarily and religiously influenced closets (the scathing traditional cover "Iko Iko Phalastini"). Well-placed live instrumentation and tight vocal arrangements allow the musical backdrops to do justice to the density of their lyricism. Juba Kalamka, Colorlines Juha blessedly defies simple categorization. In a world that allows Britney Spears to time-travel on behalf of Pepsi to become the reigning pop queen of every American generation, something this fresh and unexpected is a welcome treat. The Washington Blade Juha brings disparate worlds together in a nearly seamless and altogether remarkable way. Juha whips samples, rhymes and beats into a sit-up-and-take-notice stew that the listener will want to devour... The Windy City Times | Chicago Aptly named for the trickster in Islamic folklore, Juha leaves you guessing. Polari is a cotton-candy swirled concoction of Eastern and Western styles thrown forth like dice in a carnival atmosphere. Outspoken politically and all-over-the-map musically, Polari is one of the most interesting and satisfying albums we've heard in years. Outvoice Juha is a name you're going to be hearing a lot... you find the hard-core American hip hop character fully expressed... Juha is wickedly intelligent, with talent and intensity and balls. Musically, Juha toys with the fringed edges where hip-hop is barely distinctly itself, not just bringing together but actually using and fusing an impossibly broad range of influences. Too artful to be pop, and too far ahead of the curve to be called anything but hip hop.... Ready? No, you're not. Not for this. Juha braids together the causes and music and dreams of Hawai'i and Palestine and gay youth; the sensibilities of radical performance artists and sensitive musicians; and ties every knot so neatly at every crossing of the fibers that you see it all as a seamless whole, a single cause, a perhaps inexpressible but nonetheless whole idea. There is no compromise anywhere in the CD, 'Polari.' Juha is shockingly good. Joseph W. Bean | Out In Maui For all of hip hops thuggish wordplay and stances, there are those whose mission is to infuse the culture with new visions, rhymes and beats. Juha creates music that stretches the boundaries of hip hop. Polari is a exciting musical journey that says more on its 14 tracks than most hip hop artists do on their entire oeuvre. The Tablet | Seattle People are always chewing their fingers, speculating on the state of hip hop; I don't so much worry as long as artists like Juha thrive on the fringe of hip hop cultures. The Portland Mercury |