Brooklyn, New York emcees Rock & Ruste Juxx teaming up for a brand new collaborative LP. One of whom is a member of the Boot Camp Clik as well as the now defunct subgroups Heltah Skeltah & The Fab 5 alongside the late Sean Price while the other was a protege of Ruck making his debut on Heltah Skeltah’s sophomore effort Magnum Force. They’ve crossed paths with one another countless times in the span of 26 years & to commemorate almost a decade of Sean’s passing, they’re getting together to take us through Crownsville.
The title track is a morbid boom bap opener representing Brownsville & Crown Heights respectively whereas “Black Out” has a soulful flare to the beat proudly wearing the borough that made them on their sleeves. “Vehicular Manslaughter” produced by D-Block Records in-house producer Vinny Idol works in more kicks & snares laying out some of their hardest verses on the album prior to “Crash Ya Whip” aggressively making y’all choose one of the 6,000,000 ways to die.
After the Bernadette Price Speaks skit, “Sean Lives On” serves as a sincere tribute to P with a ghostly boom bap instrumental while “B-83” sorta dabbles with trap feeling like an open hand palm slap so they can flex their status as nuclear bomb threats. “Ruck Down” brings a rap rock vibe to the table thanks to Bumpy Knuckles representing Sean’s independently owned Duck Down Music Inc. subsidiary Ruck Down Records, but then “Change Nothing” featuring Frankie Storm finds the trio linking up advising the listener to not switch-up.
“Dust Pan” has a fun back-&-forth chemistry from Rock & Ruste cautioning that your whole team will get swept fucking with them for roughly 135 seconds while “Kings County” pulls inspiration from rock music again instrumentally shouting out the titular Brooklyn county. “Wotcha Call Strength” by the Boot Camp Clik finishes Crownsville by having the collective reuniting for the first time since 2007 for a high-energy 6 minute closer that The Arcitype laced.
Knowing both artists’ individual history with Sean Price, it’s only right that they joined forces for the duration of an entire album & one that would make Sean proud if he was still with us today. Rock & Ruste elevate their chemistry over the course of 33 minutes other than a couple guests backed by the sounds of boom bap, a hint of trap & of course samples of rock & soul music.
Score: 8/10
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