Raashan Ahmad, Crown City Rockers‘ resident MC, is part of a Hip-Hop collective with a rare air of transcendence in today's music culture. Raashan, along with producer/hype man Woodstock, keyboardist Kat Ouano, bassist/producer Headnodic and drummer Max MacVeety form the soul-funk collective known as Crown City Rockers. They mix classic soul samples and funktified beats with classically-trained live instrumentation that creates a rich, full sound behind Ahmad’s introspective, socially conscious lyricism and party-rock flow. If you haven't heard CCR, you're sorely missing out.
Raashan also has a breadth of solo work, and he's been relentlessly touring behind his album The Push and a variety of one-off projects. His latest jaunt took him through Paris, which yielded some fantastic freestyle footage, which you can check out right here (some sick French rapping towards the end):
The trip also inspired the rapper to offer up a free party mix featuring Gift of Gab, Aceyalone, Chali 2na and more.
Check out the following message (and free download!) from Raashan:
Hey Folks,
I just got back from an amazing tour in France where I met alot of good folks, heard lots of great music and got lots of inspiration! I was especially struck by the DJ's who played lots of great funk and party music which I love! I wanted to share some rare party joints in that style I've been involved with over the last year or so with some of my favorite mc's. So I present to you this:
"Ngoma" (dance or drum in swahili)
6 party starters (well 5...and 1 i just threw in cuz i thought you might need it) featuring Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Aceyalone (Freestyle Fellowship,Project Blowed), Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Lateef the Truthspeaker (Latyrx,Quaanum) with Production by Headnodic, Descry, and me! with breaks from James Brown, The Blackbyrds, The Fat Boys and more...
PLEASE pass these along!!! post on your blogs, forward to friends, and PLAY these joints!
Click here to download the mixtape!
