RamTatTa - Cro Album - Raop - released on 06.07.2012! Chimperator/Groove Attack

  
  This article was automatically translated by AI.

WHO?

"Who’s in the mood for a beat again?" asks Cro boldly in the intro of his debut album "Raop". And who could be so cheeky if not him? Cro, who effortlessly wrote and produced one of the first big hits of the year with "Easy". The one who has brought fun back into rap music with his relaxed lyrics and catchy hooks. The Cro whom Jan Delay called "the future of German HipHop". Who else?

WHERE FROM?

If you grow up like Cro, alias Carlo, in a suburb of Stuttgart, then youth isn’t particularly difficult, dangerous, or exciting. Rather, it might be a bit dull. Out of boredom and for fun, Carlo founds Black Box Records with a few friends. A basement room becomes a studio, and a repurposed headphone serves as a microphone. Carlo writes his first song - as it should be - for a girl he is really into at the time. "Unfortunately, she never heard the song," he recalls.

Music connects Carlo's family; his father introduced him to the old masters of rock, while his mother taught him how to play the piano. "And from my brother, I at least learned enough guitar chords to make the girls find it totally romantic around the campfire," he grins.

Carlo discovers another talent: drawing and designing. To supplement his pocket money, he sells self-designed shirts in the schoolyard. Carlo trains as a media designer and works as a cartoonist for a Stuttgart newspaper. In his free time, he starts his own small fashion label, selling self-designed and printed shirts.

At this time, rap is just a hobby. Still under the name Lyr1c, he records his first mixtape "Trash". The first performance follows in his hometown Stuttgart. "I stood in front of 300 people who went totally crazy. I thought to myself: If this keeps going, I’ll never stop doing this again."

And it continues. Carlo now calls himself Cro and releases his second mixtape "Meine Musik" for download on the internet in early 2011. The talent in the young man is also recognized by KAAS from the Stuttgart indie label Chimperator, who starts a search for the exceptional rapper via Twitter. And as it often goes, someone knows someone who knows someone...

Shortly thereafter, Cro sits in the Chimperator office and signs a record deal. Soon after, in November 2011, the video for the song "Easy" goes online, counting several million clicks within weeks and flooding Cro with an unexpected fan base on Facebook.

In March 2012, "Easy" is released as a single, and the wave spreads. No magazine that doesn’t report on Cro, no TV station that doesn’t want to accompany him to the studio, no radio station where "Easy" isn’t playing. No concert of his that isn’t sold out. No one who wouldn’t like to know who is behind the panda mask.

And no one who isn’t eagerly waiting for the debut album.

WHERE TO?

Cro remains relaxed. He has taken as much time for this first album as he needs. He even skipped the tour with Casper for it. He has moved back in with his mother and set up a recording space in the basement there. Back to the beginning, just like back then when the journey started. Right there, amidst the carefree and relaxed living day by day, "Raop" was created.

"Raop" [rae:op] is his creation, a portmanteau that combines the words rap and pop. The merging of Cro's very own definition of hip-hop with catchy pop sounds; the confused college rap of Mac Miller or Wiz Khalifa with hits from the indie disco and the rock of his parents. And right in the middle: Cro, who raps, sings, and hums in his own unique way - carefree, but never thoughtless.

When Carlo puts on his mask, he transforms from the nice boy next door into a hit machine. A cheeky beat that immediately gets into your legs, Cro's idiosyncratic way of rapping - and then that moment when the chorus sneaks into your ear: that’s the "Raop" secret recipe. Cro has the melodies to hum along to and the lyrics to sing along with. He manages everything at once: charming the girls, being a good buddy with their friends, and at the same time beautifully packaging heavy themes lightly.

"It’s an album for everyone who grew up with rap and might sometimes nostalgically look back at the old times, but also always enjoys new, fresh stuff," says Cro about "Raop".

Like no other, the King Of Raop embodies the feelings of a generation in their early twenties. "Raop" is: YouTube flickering, Tumblr, sex, love, heartache, freedom, living, suffering, being cool, questioning oneself, not giving a damn, looking forward, moving on.

"Raop" is the soundtrack for summer, for hanging out together and the best friends in the world, for the first great love and for the first big breakup. The music for the trip to the lake, the first time, the last kiss, the farewell into the unknown. For the days when you only realize afterwards how great they actually were. An album to waste your youth with.

Web:

www.facebook.com/cromusic

www.cromusik.info

"Road to Raop Festival Tour"

06.07. Hamburg - Campus Open AIR

14.07. Stuttgart - HipHop Open

15.07. Mgladbach - Horst

28.07. Großefehn/Ostfriesland - Omas Teich

29.07. Paaren/Glien - Greenville Festival

09.08. Feldkirch - Poolbar Festival

17.08. Wirges - Spack

21-22.09. Hamburg - Reeperbahn