RH First Look: A.J. Crew
My first meeting with A.J. Crew came at SoundScape studios, where I was working with Michael Kolar on something or other. I asked the kid if he was working on something at the time, and he said that he wasn't, that he was just at SoundScape to hang out. What he really meant was watch and learn. Many times at SoundScape I would find the unassuming Crew sitting on various couches while working on his lap top, sitting in during studio sessions, and of course, working on his own Nightmares and Daydreams, his first formal project that will see it's release on September 1st. Crew's first run is similar to many starts nowadays, with a free collection of work, spread viraly to gain an audience. However, Crew is quick to point out that Nightmares and Daydreams is a free-album, not a mixtape. He tells us, "Calling your project a "mixtape" gives it a certain connotation. People instantly think a DJ, drops, other people's beats, remixes, poor recording quality. A "free album" is what it is. It's a project that was went about like creating an album."
There's another, more pronounced difference between Crew and others his age that are just getting started on presenting music to the public, Crew's studio-ratness allowed him to soak up technical skills and the engineering talent of one of Chicago's top studios, as well as let him build with the studio's other clientele, including Rhymefest, who heard Crew's "Destiny & Desire" and decided to provide the upstart with a guest verse. We learn the story behind that encounter, as well as much more as Crew goes under the First Look microscope.
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