With Ard Bet, Judy’s Story Is Just Beginning

Written by Josue Olivares

Following a stint of Soundcloud single releases, Judy made his formal introduction with Ard Bet, a carefully crafted debut album recorded out of his own basement studio. The Wicker Park-based artist walks us through the intoxicated debauchery and pain that comes from being Wing Hoe, an artistic persona that constantly dribbles between the lines of “old-head” hip-hop critic and March Madness beer-pong player of the year.

It all starts with the intro track “Wing Hoe Party,” which reawakens the feeling of walking into your first house party with an ice-cold 40oz in hand ready to kick it with all the homies. Judy welcomes us to his living room where the weed and liquor are in abundance and he’s surrounded by women you swear you’ve seen in one of your favorite music videos. However, the highs of the moment quickly vanish into blunt smoke that fills the room as the track “Get Off” reminds the listener that Judy’s moments of celebration are often accompanied by solitude and disappointment.

On his track “Raising Hell,” Judy reminisces on a past relationship and his attempts to dull the pain caused by heartbreak. After a brief stint in New York and coming back to Chicago heartbroken, Judy describes the difficulties that come from trying to forget an ex-girlfriend left behind through reckless behavior. Lines such as “Never knew what we was fighting for, but now I’m bleeding for you / Late at night I pray to Jesus for you” highlight a type of remorse that will hit home for many.

“When the Wine Runs Out” pulls the listener out of the party and into the everyday battle Black people fight, bringing the complexities associated with self-reflection and black identity in a white society to the forefront as he raps “I’m just finding out these white lies I thought I was hip/ I’ve read a lot of books man how come I’m still finding shit.”

Throughout Ard Bet, we run into features from Chicago artists like Baha Bank$, Qari, Jack Dolan from Twin Peaks, and Jommis. Judy and Bank$ exchange an onslaught of bars on “Action,” both flexing their ability to set shit off at any function while on “Say What U Mean,” Dolan and Jommis help weave the perfect track for us to play when recovering from a weekend hangover on the porch hammock. Qari digs deep into his bottomless well of poems to pull one of his most intimate selection of rhymes on “Grievance,” helping provide the perfect track to play when sharing a glass of red wine and sad stories with a lover.

Ard Bet is a collage of self-produced and recorded songs that simultaneously take the form of rally towels and war bandanas the listener can easily drink and think to. Judy’s flow resembles that of Hennessy and Coke by remaining true to the essence of hip-hop’s rhyming-from-the-basement template while still displaying modernity within his melodies, weaving in and out of trap-influenced drum patterns.