Kansas City hip-hop duo Ces Cru released its sixth official full-length record “Catastrophic Event Specialists” just over a year ago. The pair is concerned about the state of the world but also about the state of hip-hop.
A line on the track “Rubble” goes like this: “Hip-hop chuckled to itself then created us.”
Ces Cru is not giving up on the importance and primacy of rap, cramming syllables into place, varying the phrasing and working to comment on the culture at large. The pair have a few beefs with mumble rap (and “skinny-jeans-ass rappers”).
“Pour a cup o’ lean and autotune it, that’s how you make a song,” goes an indictment on “The Process.” When they move outside of their meta-rap mode, Ces Cru have a lot to say on things like police violence, soldiers with PTSD, political corruption, deportation of undocumented immigrants, climate change and more. “Committed people change the world even in small groups,” is one of the lines from “Axiom,” off the duo’s 2014 record “Codename: Ego Stripper.”
Ces Cru plays with rapper G-Mo Skee at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven, on Thursday, March 15, at 9 p.m. $15. 203-789-8281 and cafenine.com
