“This is the most vulnerable I’ve been in a while,” New Orleans rapper Kr3wcial tells me of his latest single, the 40-MiD-produced “Lonely.”
Kr3wcial — that’s pronounced “crucial” — is a prominent member of the city’s alternative, DIY-leaning hip-hop/soul scene. Along with locals like Pell, DOMINIC!, Pro$per Jones and Sleazy EZ, he makes expressive and groovy music, heavy on instrumental vibes and imbued with the influence of the loosely organized Soulquarians collective of the late 1990s and early 2000s (comprised of musicians like Erykah Badu, Common, J Dilla, Bilal, Roy Hargrove, D’Angelo and Questlove). At venues like the Art Space on St. Claude, Kr3w, 40-MiD and others put on intimate performances where community, diversity and interpersonal relationships take center stage. Embracing one another’s differences is a fundamental tenet for anyone in the building, and it’s not unusual for a rapper’s only backing to be a saxophone player.
As a performer, producer and recording engineer, Kr3wcial has worked with the Grammy-nominated Tank and the Bangas as well as NBA YoungBoy and longtime friend Pell. At last year’s New Orleans Film Festival’s “Louisiana Shorts” showcase, Kr3wcial appeared in the Dominic Scott-directed music video for Pell’s “Skyfall.” He’s been releasing solo material since 2012 and says that central to much of his music is a focus on the essential things in life. Or, alternatively, the crucial. “It has a level of quality in its importance,” he tells me. “Even if we’re jocing, the jocing still has density to it. So everything we’re doing and everything that I usually do is some crucial shit.”
Now, Kr3wcial is releasing music reflective of a type he’s been seeking out for years. With 40-MiD as his producer-in-chief, Kr3w tells me, “The sound I think we’re curating right now, I can say I’m just finding that sound and just being able to finally do it because I met 40. I find that the pocket of music he makes is the best one for me to put out the creative sound that I’ve been working on for a while.”
Producer 40-MiD and rapper Kr3wcial. Photo by Noe Cugny
40 is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he felt somewhat unable to find his musical “tribe.” While stacking up self-produced beats in college, 40 says “I had worked with a bunch of people, but it was like they weren’t really serious. I didn’t see the trajectory being the same as it is in New Orleans. Working with people here, we all have the same goal. We all want New Orleans to be on the map, over everything. Eventually Kr3w told me to send him some beats and then we realized our studios were two doors down from each other [at the Fountainebleu Self Storage on Tulane and Carrollton Avenues].”
“Lonely” is a jazzy, “lo-fi” hip-hop love song and is, like he says, his most vulnerable work yet. “It’s a song about choices in life, and having to pick between loving and working, which is usually what I end up fucking making songs about because I’m either loving or working.” At its core, the song is about the weaknesses in each of us that get exposed when we’re feeling lonely. Ultimately, the vulnerability lies in the admission that loneliness can fucking suck, and its power over us is something few of us are ready to admit to, let alone make a record about.
Over the coming months, Kr3wcial and 40-MiD will be releasing more material together, including singles and videos but there’s no sense of urgency. Now that he’s found his “pocket of music,” Kr3w is focused on the larger picture. “Everything we make or have been making is something that’s necessary, that’s good for our musical ecosystem.”
