Trip Crowley: Bronco

Hip Hop is in an interesting place right now. We live in an age where fans look forward to mixtapes with more anticipation than a major label release. This change has been a huge help for underground artists. One only has to look to artists like The Weeknd to see how releasing free mixtapes can help build an insane following. However, let’s be serious for a second. It’s obvious that the internet is flooded with many people who call themselves artists. They download an instrumental from Youtube, lay a couple of lazy vocals on top of it and then spam you until you finally decide to hit the “block” button. This is why it’s special when you come across someone who treats the craft with love and dedication. Trip Crowley is such an artist.

Listening to his mixtape “Bronco”, it’s easy to pinpoint Trip’s inspirations. “Model in the Dark” and “Lay Awake” have a very Kanye West feel to them (complete with the strong exclamation “I ain’t been asleep in WEEKS!!” on “Lay Awake” ) while “P-O-T-Y” is heavily influenced by Drake. Relying so heavily on his inspirations could’ve been bad if that’s all this album was, thankfully it’s not. Trip’s personal style shines on the stand out track “Wicked”. Another thing that’s great about this album is the production. Trip and his team put together great tracks by sampling songs such as “If I Can’t Hold You” by Desire (for Lay Awake), “Blood Diamonds” by Heart (for Hear I Come)  and “Let Me Be The One” by Angela Bofill (for Don’t Say Love). However, there lies one small problem for me. At times it appears that the beats on this mixtape jump from one style of music to another before finding a way to flow seamlessly from song to song. Once it hits it though, it works perfectly. 

So, should you download and listen to this mixtape? Definitely. Trip has managed to do something that few unsigned underground artists do. He put together a well produced, catchy mixtape. Hell, maybe you’ll find yourself singing one of the songs as you go about your day like I did.

Full mixtape link: Link: http://soundcloud.com/tripcrowley/sets/bronco