Chris Crack

The up and coming, Chris Crack, is back and today the wordsmith drops off a dope new project for our listening enjoyment. The rising star drops off another impressive offering for our ears to devour, supplying us with his brand new mixtape called “#JackedTape”.

The track is nothing to sleep on, packed full of all new material from the MC, who took a minute to describe the project too. He stated “The project serves as a bellow of frustration towards a group of anonymous assailants who had stolen valuable music-productions and recordings from Sir Crackaveli” adding “With a failed attempt to slow Captain James Withers down, he conducts a 36 hour “Lock-In” recording session, using randomly selected beats”. Check out the interesting new collection of music after the jump and speak your mind on it down below. - STUPID DOPE

The Windy City continues to produce new and notable talent in the hip-hop world. Next up is Chris Crack, who is most known for his collabos with fellow Chicago rhymer, Tree. Together, they bring a unique blend of gritty raps and soulful production for a genre they are calling “Soultrap.” If you liked the MCTree EP, than I highly recommend that you give this tape a shot. - MissInfo.TV

After putting up with a certain amount of bullsh*t, smart people achieve a heightened sense of self. On his remix to “14 Fvck’Em,” young Chicago native Chris Crack comes across like a weathered veteran of various games, disgusted with the details that prevent him from moving forward in any of them.

Luckily, he takes his frustration out via verbal assault and personal analysis atop TMTHY TRTL’s impassioned production, making for an all-around audible release for everyone involved. - Smoking Section

Chis Crack has been on a roll with his recent releases and has unleashed some more heat on us with his latest project #JackedTape. When I had interviewed Chris a bit back he had confided upon me that some of his prized possessions, his unreleased music had been stolen and in retaliation he has released this tape to vent out some of his frustrations. The #JackedTape is motivation as Chris lives off adversity and flourishes. You might’ve taken from Chris’ plate, that just made him hungrier and more ambitious. More on Chris and the tape below. - Gowhere HipHop

I first met/heard about Chris Crack backstage at a Tree concert in 2013. Crack was Tree's hype man, eliciting enough energy onstage and enough jokes backstage to make me write his name down. Since that show back in October, Chris Crack has been dropping constant projects. In November, his producer/partner-in-crime TMTHY TRTL came out with You Are Not the Monster, an instrumental quickie, save for “Idi Amin”, which features Crack rapping in under a minute's time. The video that accompanied the track looks like something out of a 90's home video.

In December, Crack came out with Freeswag, a six song EP featuring production from Tree and TMTHY TRTL. The production Crack finds himself rapping over is similar to that Soul Trap freshness that Tree coined. The beats from TMTHY TRTL slow down old soul tracks that your parents listened to while you were growing up. Smooth and minimal tweakings. “White Van Music” slows down the keys you will most definitely recognize from Wu-Tang's “C.R.E.A.M.” Following Freeswag, Chris Crack dropped FREESWAG TOO: Fxck the Judge, five more songs, all of which are produced by TMTHY TRTL. The only exception is “Mayhem”, which Tye Hill assists behind the boards. “I So Mean It” sounds like something our parents listened to growing up. Smooth and minimal production. All Crack needs to slay. Despite being the self-proclaimed “Jimi Hendrix of hip-hop,” Chris Crack still reminds you that he is from the streets of Chicago, where “peace signs don't exist 'round here.”

The strong energy seeps through Crack's songs as well. His voice contains elements of Yelawolf, but he sounds more psychedelic, more influenced by the drugs that surround him. “Excuse me, I like mushrooms and LSD on my pizza. No pepperoni, they sleepin' on me, I'm paranoid.” His mind is all over the place with a vocal ferosity that will certainly grab your attention. Don't be surprised when he finishes a project with Pee-wee Herman laughing. On January 28, Crack dropped the music video for “95 Mustang with Gold Daytons.” On January 30, Crack dropped the music video for “Not Playing with Kids.” The stready stream of visuals is allowing Chris Crack to stay in the conversation, to remind you that he is running with the best of them. A music video to wake you from sleeping. Catch Crack in Chicago, playing two shows a week, dropping visuals daily. Don't sleep on the Crack. - MISHKA NYC

Towards the end of his brand new EP, TreeSwag, New Deal Crew rapper Chris Crack ad-libs, "You know when I'm on a Tree beat, man, I'm on good bullshit." Local "soul trap" originator Tree produced TreeSwag (hence its title), so there's a reason Crack makes an impromptu comment about Tree's intoxicating and lean instrumentals. And even though Crack is basically saying the entire EP is, well, "good bullshit" because he's working with Tree, he approaches every song with the same mix of genuine enthusiasm and earnestness he displays in the ad-lib on "Off Da Pot."
Crack's certainly got a chemistry with Tree—I imagine it's why he played hype man to Tree during last year's Pitchfork Music Festival. Crack knows how to work with Tree's idiosyncratic beats, riding the wobbly, euphoric tracks with ease while maintaining an alluring gruffness throughout the EP. He's particularly great when he cuts loose and switches the pace of his flow as he does on the aforementioned "Off Da Pot," which has a Tree instrumental that sounds like a vocal sample that's been pitch-shifted to resemble a small church choir singing to the heavens. It is, as Crack says, "good bullshit." - Chicago Reader

Chicago’s drill scene is as influential as it is infamous. When marquee acts like Kanye West and Nicki Minaj looked to add a level of grit and authenticity to their highly polished sounds, they sought out Chief Keef, King L and Lil’ Herb, not unlike boutique shoppers breaking in selvage denim with sand, saltwater, and dirt. Unlike Kanye and Nicki, however, their lyrics are hyperviolent and often delivered in a percussive, joyless deadpan.

The violence seems almost cartoonish, until you count the ever-growing number of murdered rappers and associates from the scene, and view the media coverage that resembles war zone reporting more than local news. The production, most famously orchestrated by Young Chop, is harsh, jarring, and riotous. The severity of the music propagated by these grim-faced teens is enough to make you wonder whether Chicago has lost its figurative and literal, soul.

In recent years, fellow Chicagoan MC Tree has been a welcome alternative. Describing his production style as soul trap, Tree combines his dirty fingernails, diggin’ in the crates ethos, with punchy drum work that would elicit a spark of recognition in a vacant eyed killer. After serving up his brand of emotive soul on his own Sunday School mixtapes, he links up with fellow Chicago emcee Chris Crack for a seven-track EP entitled TreeSwag.

Chris Crack, not unlike his collaborator, is a vocalist that immediately grabs your attention. However, while Tree practically exhales his perpetually hoarse lyrics, Crack’s delivery is more sudden and aggro. He is purposeful, declarative, and almost impossible to ignore. The duo are a match made in soul trap heaven, and don’t sound like anything else you’re going to hear on the blogs or radio.

They aren’t just different from other Chicago artists, they’re different from everybody, and well worth a listen - Smoking Section

Eamon Whalen gets more “ahhhhs” than inventors
The solitary artist is largely a myth. That’s not to discount individual genius, but groups of people i.e movements and scenes, tend to push boundaries and shake balance far more significantly. This seems especially true of rap, where theres nary a new rapper that arrives without some kind of crew to back them them and aesthetic to guide their form.
Basic affiliation and collaboration with someone more well known can do wonders for an otherwise unheralded rapper, but that artist must be similar enough to seem familiar, yet original enough to stand on their own.
For the last three or so years, the Cabrini-Green raised Tree has been on a slow but steady, critically-acclaimed rise with a pair of mixtapes, a recent EP and a slew of production around the Chicago scene. His Muddy Waters croak and stripped-down, north meets south production style makes for some the more distinct rap music one can find. He calls it “Soul-Trap,” and if you keep up with him on social media, branding is of utmost concern.
Enter Chris Crack, a rapper in his early 20s from the West Side of Chicago. He reps The New Deal crew, entirely separate from Soul-Trap, but also serves as Tree’s hype-man during live shows. He recently released TreeSwag, a seven track EP that’s the first in a series of four Tree has planned to produce for other artists, all under the Soul Trap banner.
So just like on the cover of the EP, Tree plays the background, acting as piano man to his former understudy. The production shifts from somewhat generic synth-heavy trap and street rap by Tree’s standards to far more interesting warped high-pitched vocal samples that sound as if they were dug in the same trip Onra made for his Chinoiseries.
Upon first impression, Crack raps in a high register with an aggressive sense of urgency, one that suggests he’s long been ignored and is finally able to say his piece. A confident, eccentric loudmouth, the type to call himself “Jimi Hendrix of this rap shit,” then move to selling guns off of “somethin’ and Madison” and then having sex to MF Doom.

The EP hits it’s sweet spot on opening track, “Cuts”. It is Soul Trap in a nutshell: layered vocal chops, clicking hi-hats and heavy 808s. Crack is at his most furious.
The only time Crack sounds remotely derivative are a few songs where he sports his best impression of Tree’s straight out of church, every-man approach to singing hooks. But admittedly you’d have to be pretty porous vocalist for those to sound tired out.
Football scouts often compliment some running backs ability to carry the ball as if they’re “running downhill.” With Chris Crack, it’s as if he’s rapping downhill, especially on tracks like “Off Da Pot” and “Way Past Pimpin”. His verses build with a remarkable energetic momentum — he has the technical proficiency to keep up with himself. - Passionweiss

Chris Crack is the "Jimi Hendrix of Rap". Prevailing Chicago's West Side scene, he combines prolific lyricism & sounds, with an infectious show. Chris Crack is the most enthralling artist in hip-hop. While the city of Chicago is widely known for its diverse tastes, ranging from marinara-covered, deep-dish style pizzas, and mild sauce-soaked wings, to gun-toting “drill” trappers, towering sky-scrapers, and flagrant hustlers, the trend setters of the “Windy City”, strive to stand-out from even their own community. A notably unique artist that sets himself apart from the rest, is the undoubtedly-fashionable, remarkably-imaginative, hip-hop visionary, Chris Crack; who prefers “LSD and Mushrooms” on his slice of pie, and stapling his unorthodox, “cult-like” collective of music and style, the New Deal Crew, into hip-hop music. - Red Bull Sound Select & Fake Shore Drive

“You know when I'm on a Tree beat, man, I'm on good bullshit.”

TreeSwag is Chris Crack rhyming and Tree producing. A lethal combo of Chicago soul trap. It's great to hear someone else finally getting a chance to rhyme over some Tree beats (he tends to keep them for himself). It's equally as great to see Chris Crack continuing down a path of strong, cohesive projects. For the most part, he sticks with the same producer for an entire project, a concept I always prefer. In the past, we have seem him drop EPs fully produced by TMTHY TRTL, another crate digging/soul-addict. With Tree, we get that same effect, but this time with a bit more snarl. Seven tracks and a bonus cut at the end still seems too short.

On the collaborator's name alone (TREE!), this project will help project Crack to where he should be in the rap game: spread out to the masses. His past efforts can prove it. And now, it's like, “Oh Tree produced this?? I'ma check it. Oh damn, this dude can rhyme!”

[Click Link Above to Read the Full Article] - MISHKA NYC

What would you do if you just got robbed? While most people may find themselves in a fit of rage with no outlet, up and coming Chicago artist Chris Crack a.k.a. “Captain James Withers” stuck himself in the studio and turned a 36 hour recording session into his latest project, #JackedTape.

Chris Crack is blowing up in the Windy City in a major way. Regularly appearing on the blog roll locally and abroad, Crack has also been recently selected as a Red Bull Sound Select Artist. Curated by Fake Shore Drive, this announcement has further garnered the gritty, uniquely voiced wordsmith the attention of artists outside of Hip-Hop when IRIDIUM Clothing designed a pair of pants inspired by “Crackavelli’s” popular #FREESWAG movement and mixtape series. Crack is also captain of the New Deal Crew, a team featuring Cutta, TMTHY TRTL, and Jara, that consistently pushes out high quality music with consistency and regularity. In a city centralized around the mainstream success of the shoot ‘em up styled “drill” scene, Crack, his entourage, and his cult-like following pursue new heights in Hip-Hop artistry with impeccable and imaginative production, style, and wordplay molded by drugs, women, and the streets they live in. - Amrbosia for Heads

Tree’s something of an anomaly in Chicago’s current landscape; it’s easy to forget that Chicago was once defined by warm, weathered soul samples instead of drill’s apocalypse-beckoning bombast. His presence is a reminder that there’s room for both; today he and fellow Chicagoan Chris Crack share #TREESWAG, a 7-track EP (with one secret track tucked in) entirely produced by the soul trap originator. It’s cool to hear Tree edge a bit outside his zone here, especially on closing tracks “Off Da Pot” and “Way Past Pimpin.” Saba and C. Rich contribute guest verses. Stream #TREESWAG below, or download it here.

[http://www.audiomack.com/album/newdealcrew/treeswag] - The Fader Magazine

Chicago's Chris Crack and his collaborators in New Deal Crew haven't generated as much attention as some of the city's up-and-comers, but at least a few people are listening: MC/producer Tree, for instance, has pinpointed Chris Crack as the city's next artist to watch (not a recommendation to take lightly given the fact Tree's last pick was Chance the Rapper).

#FREESWAG TOO: Fxck The Judge is the second installment in Crack's #FREESWAG series, and it presents the rapper as equal parts absurd, crass and thoughtful. The opening salvo of "Crackaveli in this bitch/I'll see you at the tip-top/A J Cole feature that's equivalent to shit sauce" paired with ominous minor-key production feels a little reminiscent of Odd Future, and asides about topics like peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches channel a similar wackiness. Crucial for any rap pun connoisseurs, there's a song called "Trill Bellamy." Elsewhere it's more straightforward life stuff ("I'm pushing my daddy to get his life straight"), but every bit of it's arresting.

The production, handled mostly by fellow New Deal Crew member TMTHY TRTL, is full of jarring, minimal instrumentation. Guests include New Deal Crew associates The Dutchmaster and Black Matt, as well as a production turn from Tye Hill. This is silly, fun, serious and unique—all essential qualities for exciting new hip-hop. - Complex Magazine