Crown City Rockers - Earthtones (Basement Records)

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What happens when you combine classically trained musicians from the world-renowned Berklee School of Music in Boston, with an articulate MC and a breathtaking beat-wizard both born and raised in sunny, southern California?

Crown City Rockers, that’s what! A genre-bending hip-hop collective whose music is original, powerful and provocative all in the same breath and follows in the storied footsteps of such pioneers as The Roots, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.

With an organic blend of lush, funk-drenched grooves, riveting classic soul samples, sharp live instrumentation and of course old-school inflected rhymes, Crown City Rockers is a welcome breath of fresh air in today’s commercially cluttered hip-hop cosmos.

Comprised of the Cali bred MC Raashan Ahmad, producer Woodstock, the Berklee trained keyboardist Kat Ouano, bassist/producer Headnodic, and drummer Max MacVeety, Crown City Rockers formed in Beantown’s Roxbury section during the late nineties.

“We did some shows in Boston trying to get our name out,” recounts Raashan. “And then we decided to move out to Cali to record an album.”

And so, the group, then known as Mission after the Boston hood they all lived in, set out West. The group changed their name to Crown City Rockers after an old 60’s British rock band called Mission asked them to switch monikers.

Now, Crown City Rockers’ second full length LP, Earthtones is poised for release. It is an astonishing achievement, seamlessly fusing all of the group’s sonic facets together. Indeed, the album overflows with Raashan’s battle raps, poetic musings and emotionally-fraught tracks about life and love. The lyrics are, in turn, melded with Kat’s keyboards, Max’s drums, and Headnodic and Woodstock’s beats — which run the creative gamut from funk and soul to jazz and drum and bass to straight, classic hip-hop.

There are, of course, so many hip-hop groups trying to sustain careers these days. And with Crown City Rockers’ undeniable talents, their distinct musical backgrounds and now, their riveting debut album, this group is certain to make an immediate impact upon the very first listen.

Indeed, no words need justify their abilities…Crown City Rockers’ music speaks for itself, and dares you not to listen.




PRESS

"[Earthtones] is one of the most immediately enjoyable albums to come out of the Bay Area underground this year."
- SF Weekly
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"Barring an unexpected break-up or devastating earthquake, there is absolutely no question that Crown City Rockers will blow up on a national level."
- AllHipHop.com
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