Jahni Denver

If there’s one thing Mountain Lion, Pt. 1 succeeds in doing, it’s putting a song in your head and keeping it there, whether you want it or not. While Jahni Denver’s flow is only okay and his subject matter is rarely original, he is a master of the hook, and he has an endearing candor — a quality which the album’s overdependence on Auto-Tune does a great disservice to. It’s hard to take Denver’s hook, “I’m from these streets,” seriously when it sounds like T-Pain is singing it. Jahni’s interests lie mainly in his everyday struggles and mystical superstition, a little like Ab-Soul but a lot less mysterious and intriguing. Denver does have lyrical highlights, like verses in “Murda” and especially “The Craft,” but he’s overshadowed on both by his featured guest, Bizzy Bone, who provides most of the highlights for the record — never a good sign for the artist to whom the album belongs.