Crew Deep Review & thoughts

Crew Deep (*right click save as* to download free) is the official 5th project we've done as Crew54. Chase Hoffberger of the Austin Chronicle had this to say about the album:

Killeen duo Crew54 spreads the wealth on digital download/street release Crew Deep, getting "nasty as a Ray J sex tape" ("Get Up") over Parr Beats' production ("Therapy") and Remax's GOOD Music-evoking "Keep Shining." Houston affiliate V-Zilla and ATX ally Alpha 20/20 bring the heat on "Knocking Doors Down" and "Feel Me," respectively, but Crew Deep tops off at the tail end with Bavu Blakes reeling in the "Good Day." AustinChronicle.com

We appreciate the good words, means we're doing something right. I wanted to give you a bit of my mos-thoughts about the project and what happened on theses songs. Check it out.

1. Sun God Yamaha Skit - Crew Deep was intended to be an album showcasing all of the collabs we've done in the past year or so. Sun God Yamaha doesn't seem to like all these new niggas.
2. First Things First - We were near the end of the recording process and looking for the proper song to jump it off, Dichter2 Productions hit us with this one out of nowhere and we blazed it up. I've heard this sample flipped before, but I love the way D2P worked it for us. We had some specific pieces we wanted for the hook and DJ Kidcut cut it up perfectly.
3. Get Up - This is one of the older songs on the album, but we never put it on a project so we had to get it on here. I'd seen King E posting on some of the boards I was familiar with and I hit him up after he showed us love on a song we did. I asked him for a banger, and he delivered...nuff said.
4. Can't Lose ft. Random - C-hova pointed me to a guy on Myspace that she really liked, even said he reminded her of some stuff I would do. I checked him out and he was dope, and I saw making some crazy moves. I hit him up for a collab and not only was he down but he had beats for us to use too. We picked one and did our parts and he came through, even shot us some footage of him to put a video together. Check it out HERE, and check him out he's killing it now.
5. Blue Rain - He came with his buddy Real Realington to let you know he'll get ya wet
6. Grown Man Muzik - I swear D2P had us in mind when he created this beat, its energetic but still smooth enough for us to talk about some real shit on. I think this is G's favorite song to perform right now
7. Still Strugglin ft. Pugs Atomz - We met Pugs Atomz when we opened for him on tour with DJ Vadim, Abstract Rude, & Yarah Bravo. I'd heard about him online and knew he was doing his thing, we talked a bunch at the show and afterwards hit him up for the collab and he was down. We had a bunch of bangers from Zaire and the fam, so we just sent this one to Pugs and he hit us back with a verse and the hook. Banger!
8. Therapy - Our grind in Germany was crazy for a minute, we were getting hit with collabs and beats from a new German artist/producer almost everyday. Parr Beats was no exception, woke up with this banger in the Gmail box.
9. Come Ride With Me - We'd been hearing bout this producer making heat in the ATX. I'd heard some of Da Bosnian's joints and we'd even met him at a couple of shows. He was selling a double disk instrumentl project with beats to be used. We went threw it all and liked this smooth joint. Added a sample from a hot track he did with Charlie Boy & Bavu Blakes to the end, plus I snored on it, whats better than that?
10. Silky Christ Skit - bitch you must be crazy...
11. Who Dat Is - "Like OMG, does Crew54 have a club banger!?!" The homie Kwestro, formally know as Qenetic Storm, always works well with us. We blazed Titan off of Aggressive Soul and he delivered this one on a platter. We hit up some folks, I won't name the names, but basically they didn't come through. No biggie because we did it Crew54 style and I think this is a sleeper hit on this album, they love it in the club.
12. Feel Me ft. Alpha 20-20 - From the moment we met 2020, aka Ike of Mike & Ike, we knew he was extremely talented. Not only does he rock damn near every track, but he also makes some powerful ass beats. He actually came through one day to record a track for G's solo album and brought a beat cd. Wrote & recorded this song on the spot, and its probably my fav song on the album, but shhhhh don't tell nobody.
13. Get Ready - This was the 1st song we did with D2P, he sent us a beat sampler that had 5-6 heat rocks on it, but this fit our style more at the time. I still listen to that sampler like we could have made the hottest 5-6 song album with just those beats alone. Oh yeah, we shot a video for this too, check it HERE.
14. Keep Shining ft. Unlearn - Once again the German connection came through, whats up German fam get us a plane ticket and its ON. Remax blessed us with this smooth beat, and we used it as a remix to our show stealer SHINE off Beaters & Babies. We met the homie Unlearn through DJ 730 over at HipHopGame.com Unlearn held it down and hopefully we'll work together in the future.
15. Knocking Doors Down ft. V-Zilla - I LOVE THIS SONG, simply put. I've known King Verse for a hot minute since before we started Crew54, and he's always down to drop a jem on us. When I heard this beat I immediately was on some DJ Premier shit, like THIS IS HIP-HOP. We met V-Zilla at a show here in Austin in 07, sent him the beat and in 08 he sent his verse back and it was pure fire.
16. Champion Radio - If you're radio was a champion these are the songs it would skip through...
17. Champion - ...and this is the song it would land on. This was another one from D2P, we told him what kind of song we wanted to do and he sent this within the hour. Went through some hassle with the first recordings of this, it was even on the blog, but this one is perfect. I still think this is ready for ESPN, someone hook ya boys up.
18. Ghetto Is Our Home ft. Donny Goines - I try to stay up on my hip-hop buzz, and I'd been seeing the name Donny Goines pop up EVERYWHERE. I checked some tracks out and was pleased to see a cat spitting honest rhymes, with a dope flow on some straight hip-hop ish.
19. Good Day ft. Bavu Blakes & Beaute - As I stated before, the process of this album was to get some collabs done with folks that would help us progress as artist. We fished around for a few quote unquote big names that really weren't what we needed. This is another Keelay & Zaire banger that we felt deserved to be done right. There was a different hook intended but when G came with whats on their now we felt that was perfect for the situation. Once we had the overall sound played out we knew Mr. Blakes would be perfect for it and luckily he held us down.
20. Too Late - Benny from Rappersguide.com (German Connection fam, whats good with it?) asked us to jump on a mixtape they were working on. He sent a boatload of hot beats, but this heat rock from Mindz took the cake. We were in the "scream at em let em know whats good" mind frame when we heard it, so thats where we took it.

Crew Deep Review & thoughts