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Crime Mob Returns With New Album
After their hard-hitting club hit “Knuck If You Buck” became a huge street anthem in 2004, Georgia-based rap group Crime Mob is returning to claim their title as Crunk music’s most prolific act.
Preparing for their upcoming album Hated on Mostly (BME/Warner Bros.), the six rowdy rappers from Ellenwood, Ga. sold more than 200,000 copies of their self-titled debut release, despite negligible airplay...
Comprised of Jock aka M.I.G., Cyco Black, Diamond, Lil Jay, Princess and Killa C (who is currently incarcerated), Crime Mob formed in 2001 after the members pulled their allowances together to produce a demo. They quickly created a buzz in local high schools, and Atlanta’s crowned prince of crunk, Lil’ Scrappy, took notice, inviting them to perform as his opening act at shows around the area. Scrappy later signed the group to his production company, Crunk Incorporated.
"Once things started taking off, we got management and all that kind of stuff,” says Princess, one of two female MCs in the group. “We couldn't be in school, missing all those days, so we had to be home-schooled,” she says of receiving her 11th and 12th grade education at home.
Now ranging in ages from 18 to 21, the group looks back on their days as burgeoning rap stars, and many have a new outlook on the industry and their instant success.
"Basically, we were coming right out of the streets. That was the life we were living," Cyco Black says of the group's early numbers. "We were young, being hardheaded, and living off thrills. In reality, that don't get you nowhere. Instead of getting into trouble, we feel like we can make music and turn everything bad around to good."
The group’s second club banger, “Stilettos (pumps)”, allowed the female group members Diamond and Princess to take the lead as they represented for female hip hop lovers in an unconventional fashion while staying true to their southern crunk roots.
"I was taught by the boys, and they had this high expectation. You had to come just as hard as a male. If you're going to be part of Crime Mob, you have to come with it." Princess chimed in by saying, "A lot of other females think that sex sells. If you're real creative -- and I'm not saying that other females aren't -- then there's a lot more to talk about than what you can do to a male, and what a male can do to you."
Despite mediocre marketing and radio play, Crime Mob inked a deal with famed Crunk King, Lil’ Jon, on his BME Records label, and are now preparing for their upcoming 2007 release.
With a large portion of the production contributed by their own Lil Jay, the group says they’ve grown lyrically, and the outcome will be one of the most refreshing albums on the upcoming year.
"We turned heads on the first one because we were young and competing with a lot of other mainstream artists," Diamond says. "The first time it was like, 'Oh, they're just kids.' But now, [we're] not just crunk. We actually have lyrics and stuff that [people] can actually listen to and say, 'Oh, they're really talking about something.'"
“Hated on Mostly” is slated to appear in stores January 9, 2007, and will feature the album’s lead single “Rock Yo Hips” with Lil’ Scrappy. The album will also feature songs like “Don’t Need Ya”, “Circles”, “2nd Look” and the rowdy club anthem “Who You Be.”
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