Jose James as been described as the jazz singer for the hip hop generation, which supposedly gives him an edge over the rest of the pack. That said, with his baritone vocal talent and clear inspiration from legends like Billie Holiday, John Coltrane and Marvin Gaye the man's sophomore effort - Jose James 'Blackmagic' released under Brownswood Recordings - comes as a welcome edition to jazz fans new and old.

'Blackmagic' is the kind of slick, love making style, soul album that you'd expect from a soul crooner like Mr. Jose "I want to make sweet love to you" James, and would have been the perfect release for Valentine's day but some bright spark decided it was destined to come out on February 22, 2010.

Falling under the more "experimental" side of the jazz genre, James's 'Blackmagic' has elements of dub step and hip hop in it but only slightly. ‘Warrior', one of only two tracks to display these elements, combines spoken word poetry and dubstep, which works quite well and makes the album more interesting than it is.

Rivmixx is afraid to say that, ultimately, we found this album a little dull and unoriginal. As good as the production is and the vocal tones of Mr. James rich, it left us a little bored. The dubstep on ‘Warrior' and the hip hop beats on ‘Promise in Love' should have spread to the rest of the album; why not go all out if you're going to experiment!? One would suggest that Jose James is more dabbler less experimenter.

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