Independent Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania rappers John Anthony and J Mont have released their collaboration album, Heroes 2 Villains, following months of rumors and speculation surrounding the two’s joint project.
The album has three features from other independent artists such as TonyLonl3y on “Gaslight”, Phoenixx Rose on “Club Up”, which samples Three 6 Mafia’s “Tear Da Club Up” single (1996) and also fellow, local Wilkes-Barre rapper Frizz guesting on two songs “Scary Season” and “We Made It”. At first listen, the album highlights include “Scary Season”, which showcases as an exceptional mainstream hit with its three-part beat switch-up, “Talk 2 Me”, which consciously enlightens on each artists relationship feelings while adding a esthetic thunderstorm background to the song, and the project’s main hit single “Give It To Ya,” which samples Flo Rida’s classic track “Sugar” (2009).
Heroes 2 Villains was officially revealed on October 1, 2023 on social media, however, both John Anthony and J Mont have hinted at the project for the better most of 2023. Back in late March, John Anthony appeared on a YouTube podcast, talking about his recently released sixth studio album Success Story. He would later hint in the interview that he and J Mont have “something coming” in the near future. In August, J Mont also appeared on a Youtube podcast where he mentioned that the duo will be releasing an album in October. J Mont also talked his recently released second studio album Mont Rushmore, where one of the songs on entitled “Nightmare Feels” was originally going to be apart of the Heroes 2 Villains album. In September, the duo would drop their hit single “Give It To Ya”, along with the music video to promote the Heroes 2 Villains.
With Heroes 2 Villains, John Anthony and J Mont took a more comic book approach, revealing the album’s 3D, comic-like cover art on August 1. While the albums artwork and theme sparks eye-opening creativity, the album itself falls just a tad short of such originality. The 15-track album delivers on promising mainstream value and club excitement, but leaves a gaping hole on the concept delivered by the two artists.
Heroes 2 Villains seemingly relegates J Mont to a supporting role, neutering the textural and thematic contrast that sold the album’s hit single “Give It To Ya”, which was a good balance between the two artists. Though, the album doesn’t completely one-side in John Anthony’s direction, it clearly expresses the architectural mastermind behind Anthony forming the album’s structure as one of his own.
The two Northeastern Pennsylvania rappers have been accompanied on each other’s respected albums in the past, both featured in several songs prior to the release of Heroes 2 Villains in October of 2023. Most recently in the past few years, J Mont and John Anthony found success on “Look At My Life”, which was featured on John Anthony’s fifth studio album Villaination! in 2022, and “Come Around”, which has a guest appearance from R&B singer SoundingBlue and was featured on J Mont’s debut studio album Premonition, which also released that same year.
The duo’s collaborative album, Heroes 2 Villains, is a noticeable John Anthony project that selectively obtains minimal but competent energetic jolts and distinctive lyricism from J Mont’s involvement. Ideally, it’s a tremendous example of what happens when two witty but similar rappers with very different perspectives try to portray a collective art piece. John Anthony’s laid-back, canny approach is far from what some may have expected, coming from the uniquely lyrical rapper, who just seven months prior, released Success Story — an all boom-bap, sampled filled album with multi-syllabic rhyming, storytelling and creative visuals. Heroes 2 Villains does try to focus itself creatively with its comical theme, but apart from the artwork, the album doesn’t build off that ideal subject. Most, if not all songs, duplicate off each other and desperately try to gravitate to the stereotypical mainstream proposition that is overused in today’s hip-hip scene.
Outside of the albums platitudinal style, the pair’s chemistry is apparent throughout several songs. The album begins promisingly with “Action City” where John Anthony opens with inviting the critical doubt surrounding his career, stating “give me all the hatred, give me all the feedback”, as both artists bounce off each other’s verses in a back and forth beat switch. It’s a decent introduction track that allows the audience to grasp the vibe of the album, while also prompting the mainstream, trap-style that suits today hip-hop generation. The second track, “Scary Season”, showcases versatile flows and unique cadences on the captivating sample beat-switch, though the simplicity of the lyrics tend to drag the potential of the song down. Featured independent rapper Frizz, who appears on the song, tends to dominate early with his raw and witty punchlines, then the songs takes a small dip. Mont’s flow, though very majestic and different in cadence, stocks very simple and generic lyrics. It carry’s into John Anthony’s verse, where he does set the tone with his punctuating, energetic flow, however they style just seems very uncharacteristic and abnormal of him, which leads back to the unoriginal rap-style that is overused and copied by so many rappers today. Still one of the albums better songs overall.
Inexplicably, that’s where the album gets very repetitive. In over half of the songs seem to target and be filtered by smashing 808’s and sub basses with very generic, but yet catchy hooks. This technically isn’t a bad thing either as about ninety percent of today’s rap music is generated around this idea, however, for two young and upcoming artists trying to make a name for themselves in such a vast and overcrowded hip-hop scene, directing their talents towards what is, in a sense “popular” today, could be what made this album come off less bullishness than one would have expected. On three separate songs from the album, John Anthony appears to unintentionally begin to recycle several lines in his verses. On “Talk It Up”, a song where Anthony shows his best lyrical combat of rhymes from the album, he addresses industry rappers copying styles, stating: “Them rappers are begging to bite this / You can bend ’em over but they spineless”. In the very next song “Gaslight”, he coincidentally uses a very similar line while taking subliminal shots at his former friends: “None of ’em carry a backbone, so it makes sense how they gotta be spineless”. Even with this, John Anthony stays very loose and confident throughout his verses but the unawareness of similarities between certain songs tend to question the effort gravitated to this project. And even though Heroes 2 Villains sounds more like a John Anthony album that features J Mont rather than it should equally, you still feel the potential of such an incredible album that could’ve been.
Cut to “Talk 2 Me”, a track that showcases the patience of each rapper’s development in storytelling. In a parallel universe, this song would have been a certified mainstream hit with how the creativity, of not only the guise of wordplay and story, but the filtered instrumental with added in rain and thunder effects gives the song a picture perfect aesthetic. “Hypnotized”, another smooth and sot-out song implementing in lyrical storytelling, also indulges itself in the whole romantically seductive vibe, with John Anthony contradicting between his unbridled chorus, singing “You got me hypnotized by your waist and your thighs”, before jumping to his objective lyrics and quite possibly addressing his trust issues with pervious ex’s, stating: “You’d have a gated community with all of the fences you putting up”. J Mont, however, takes more of a comforting approach with his apparent storytelling desire, addressing the trust he shows for either a former and current girlfriend, rapping: “She know I’m a rider / Muhammad Ali, whatever she need, she know I’m a fighter”.
But with all John Anthony’s eagerness and looseness, it’s J Mont who sort’ve steals the show. Both artists showcased their exceptional performances respectively, bringing their own unique touch and cadences on each track, however from the very beginning, Heroes 2 Villains felt like a very one-sided directed project in the favor of John Anthony. By the end of the album, you feel it more gravitated to a complete compilation project, which makes H2V feel more like what it was made to be; a duo album. Though you can tell each artist feels out of place with the style and direction this album took, you can also credit it’s uniquely confident vibe and narrative it was trying to assemble. That bit of emotional separation is why this project ultimately prevails over the indignation emanating from a standard music-goer hearing these artists for the first time. You can nitpick John Anthony and J Mont for several aspects of this album, but in the end these are two artists that quite possibly many people know very little about and they just structured an album that is, to all intents and purposes, better than a lot of current hip-hop albums out there today.
Song Rankings from Best to Worst
10/10 — “Talk 2 Me” — The track defines what a good, storytelling song should be. With its creative lyrically narrative from both artists, along with its unique, thunderstorm/rain aesthetic, the song pulls together as the albums best.
9/10 — “Scary Season” — Unique cadences, creative punchlines and a loosely sampled instrumental that features an upgraded beat-switch, along with versatile lyricism between all three artists, leaves this song as a top tier track.
8/10 — “Give It To Ya” — The albums hit single, which was sampled by the song “Sugar” from Flo Rida, showcases a very catchy sampled, mainstream sound that can very well be a major success in todays hip-hop field, if marketed correctly.
7.5/10 — “Hypnotized” — A very reminiscent track to its successor, “Talk 2 Me”, follows through on yet another storytelling session with both artists diving into their personal beliefs and romantic emotions. If not for it feeling like a copy and paste of “Talk 2 Me”, it would be ranked much higher.
7/10 — “Bad Beatle” — Yet another catchy track, this song does scream ‘club vibe’ when heard. But that’s all you really get from it… a catchy, club song.
6.5/10 — “Talk It Up” — The song gravitates towards such strong potential with its witty flow and lyrics, however, the beat tends to overdue itself and somewhat overshadow the artists a bit.
6.5/10 — “Just Paper” — Quite possibly the realist track they offer, it’s smooth and laid back tone does compress a well-made synchronized flow between each artist, but feels a bit unnatural.
6.5/10 — “Candor” — A laid-back, sneaky banger that it full of loosely placed punchlines and flows, this song gains so much in its simplistic and interesting approach, but also forgets to make us believe what they are trying to explain in their rhymes.
6/10 — “We Made It” — Unlike “Scary Season” with featured independent artist Frizz, this song doesn’t quiet replicate the success of the latter track. Even though all three elaborated their raw and lyrical ways, it almost feels a little too ‘try hard’, whereas “Scary Season” felt genuine.
5/10 — “Action City” — The very first track you hear comes in the form of a beat-switch, which does punctuate very well through your speakers, but takes a muddy downfall after the switch-up. It does set the tone for the album, but just lacks that automatic attention-seeking grasp you need with your first song on an album.
4.5/10 — “Trophies” — Understandably, this album loves to have beat-switches, but this song is a clear example of overdoing it. The two-verse track is heavily one sided in John Anthony’s favor, as his verse takes up almost all the song and seems to drag on way too long. The beat drop was unexpectedly good though.
4/10 — “Side To Side” — Another sampled track that starts out very strong and does portray that ‘club banger’, mainstream sound. Only problem is, this song is at the barrel end of an album that if filled with way too much of that ‘club banger’, mainstream sound. Just comes off too repetitive and feels like a filler track.
3/10 — “Gaslight” — J Mont felt like the only rapper who fit the style of this song. Though is lyrics were subpar at best, his cadence matched well with the style of the beat. John Anthony’s flow and rhythm felt out of place and TonyLonl3y’s verse almost came off-putting. It was yet another hard-hitting song, but nothing about it felt comfortably normal between all three artists.
2.5/10 — “Club Up” — Speaking of ‘club banger’ tracks, this song is entitled to exactly that. It’s a good song, don’t get me wrong, it only reason it’s placed this low is track placement. It’s listed as the second to last song on the album, and like I said previously, the album is filled with that hard-hitting, ‘club -styled’, mainstream sound that once you get to this song, it just feels very overwhelming.
1/10 — “All On Me” — Certainly it’s the very last song on the album for all intents and purposes right? Once again, it’s not a terrible track, though it just feels very bloat and bland compared to every other song on the album. The instrumental didn’t seem to fit with what all fourteen other tracks shaped out to be. It was a frisky experimental track that could have been left off the album entirely. If there’s any positive to give, the song does give a different wedge between its Lil Uzi Vert-styled beat and the constant repetitiveness of overbearing trap beats on the other fourteen songs.
Overall Ratings
Rating
Casual Fan: A
Critically: C-
Lyricism: 5/10
Production: 9/10
Cadence: 7/10
Creativity: 7/10
Originality: 4/10
John Anthony Rating
Lyricism: 6/10
Flow: 8/10
Rhyme Scheme: 6/10
Delivery: 8/10
Hooks: 10/10
Verses: 6/10
Storytelling: 5/10
Wordplay: 6/10
J Mont Rating
Lyricism: 5/10
Flow: 6/10
Rhyme Scheme: 7/10
Delivery: 6/10
Hooks: 3/10
Verses: 8/10
Storytelling: 7/10
Wordplay: 8/10
— Overall Album Review Grade: B
(or: 7.5/10)
