Posted on 10/21/2009
In the hip-hop world, if you don't have a new song, album, video, or ringtone every three months, you're already a has-been. It may come as a surprise that the Crown City Rockers have just released their third album in eight years. A group that started with two MC's, have been a one MC collective when they changed their name from Mission to CCR. Some of its members spent time doing solo projects. This isn't rock'n'roll where you can do whatever you want for five years and come back, this is hip-hop. Crown City Rockers are the exception, for their combination of real instrumentation and samples has helped people respect them like a fine wine, and that it's not about quantity but quality. With the release of The Day After Forever, they show that quality is worth the wait if you're patient, and it's an album that looks towards the future by always acknowledging the past.

What the Crown City Rockers have done for this album is give the music a retro flip. In this case, The Day After Forever is not an album with an old school feel, per se. Instead, imagine if hip-hop had already been apart of the paradigm from 1969 to 1984. You hear elements of The Meters, Herbie Hancock, Midnight Star, and countless other funk, soul, and jazz icons in the spirit of the music they play, and Rashaan Ahmad simply moves the crowd and understands the role of an MC. He is truly a master of the ceremony, for when you enter the CCR party, you want it to last until sunrise. The soulful vibe throughout is a CCR trademark, although in a track like "Go Away," Ahmad touches on some of the social problems of Oakland and how everyone seems to be going in for the kill, where people eventually end up killing themselves. Rather than fight it, he explains in other tracks that it doesn't have to be like that. By describing some of the tales of his youth, it allows older listeners to reminisce a bit but the feel of the music sounds like a "now" album, as if we're still watching cartoons on Saturday, not being afraid to play at the park.

Keyboardist Kat Ouano continues her funky ways by playing a right range of styles in different tones, and she even presents her classical upbringing in "Astroshocks," with a song that doesn't particularly sound classical. Drummer Max McVeety and bassist Headnotic have become more solid over the years, while Woodstock continues to impress with his carefully selected beats and samples. On paper it might sound like a bunch of random influences, but as they have proven since their debut album, the Crown City Rockers can pretty much read each other but also know how to pull each others strings to take out more from a particular person, even in a studio setting. They are in peak form when vocalist Destani Wolf joins them in the irresistible "Cruisin’”. Her performance in this is incredible, the song should be a contender for a single and I can see this become a major highlight for them when they perform. As for this being a one MC album, Ahmad holds this down without hesitation. The Day After Forever is music for those who still feel hip-hop is a forever music, this is just the sound of an anticipated tomorrow.

-John Book