When I heard this slow, soul-filled hip-hop number "The Word" by LA based producer A.J. Crew, I thought that there was something different. It could have been the vocal inflections over some of his rhymes, which I saw as the MC equivalent to blues "scatting" or maybe that the lyrics were just honest, no glitz, no glam, no bottles and bitches. In one rhyme Crew even spits about having his session cancelled, which is about as real as it gets for an up and coming artist.
He has also spent time doing charity work to further sickle cell anemia research, a reality check in itself and donated half the proceeds from his online single "Still Waiting" to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. Crew has been steadily building his name in the hip-hop world since he was a student at Columbia College Chicago, the largest university for the performing arts in the United States. But he stood out, relocated to Los Angeles and went on to collaborate with Grammy award winning artists Rhymefest and Naledge.
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