CR Blacks[@cr_blacks] gifts us with this piece of art on his debut album “Gate 33”

11 tracks heavy and full of music, CR gives us no breaks and takes us through life in his eyes. His first track ‘Sunset on Sunset Blvd’ is an amazing intro to this album including a dope beat encompassing it while the clear message is taking us through. As the album carries on though you can hear a darker undertone in songs such as ‘Ghost’ or ‘Is it true???’ which I guess is the main theme of the album with a lot of lyrics talking about how he was alone because as he puts it “living on the straight and narrow is getting kind of boring”.

CR being a relatively new artist to the game means a challenge in itself and then on top of that being from London which we all know from history is an even greater task, it’s always good to see someone pushing boundaries from within. I say this because just listening to the album it hasn’t got the usual “skibbidy” flow or ‘preditah’ type beats that almost always comes with English Rap/Grime  

Now saying all this I wouldn’t be being true to myself unless I gave my honest opinion and so I will. I first listened to this album sitting on my settee with my headphones on and to be completely honest I wasn’t won over by the first listen, then as I was writing up this review and giving it more and more plays, I started to vibe with it. The songs started to make more sense and were growing on me more and more especially the song ‘Best Bud’ which features ‘Drey Cheekz’ and ‘Neighbourhood Nick.’ So it would be wrong of me to give this a thumbs down as I did enjoy the tracks.

As my final thoughts, with all the factors measured in including the fact that it’s one of his first works etc. I’d say this album is a definite good starting point. I wish nothing but blessings to CR on his come up,which I’m sure is already on his way.

My ranking – 5/10