Krunkquistadors, After Hours

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not into rap music, per se. I mean, I’ll always support Lil Wayne, because he came from that same little hell town of New Orleans that I came from, and then he went on to become a mega-superstar (even though his egregious use of Autotune does make me physically ill), and TI because the music he’s been putting out since he was convicted of federal weapons charges has been so uplifting and motivational — I wish more artists, from all genres, were putting out more music with inspirational messages.

But let’s forget about saving the world for a moment; we’re talking about the Krunkquistadors here, who are by their own nom-de-plume “Conquistadors of Krunk.” Right off the bat, you can tell these guys are smokers.

So why, then, would I review their latest album After Hours, if I’m not into hip-hop? Because despite my New Orleans roots, I also spent a great deal of time growing up in Houston, and anything with the word “Krunk” in it is going to get my attention. I don’t care what anybody says, we coined that word. So I even went to a Krunkquistadors concert to get a feel of what they were about and I was finally able to put them in context. They are the Southern Hollywood Undead, with a tiny splash of LMFAO thrown in. They are ambassadors of partying and drinking, and I believe I already mentioned that they are smokers.

Krunkquistadors is fronted by Kris Krunk, Earl Wang, and Kyle Hubbard. If I were to categorize their roles in the group, I would say that Kris Krunk is the hype-man, Earl Wang is the comedian, and Kyle Hubbard is the genius. Kyle Hubbard tore all of his verses up, to the point that I wish there was more of him on the album. No disrespect to Wang and Krunk, but if I’m on the Lakers, I’m passing the ball to Kobe, you know what I mean? I found myself looking for Kyle’s verse on every track because he was such a standout.

A lot of the hooks of the songs didn’t impress me — even though I realize this is a party record — but the verses always had something to pull me back in, whether it was Wang or Krunk saying something crazy or Kyle doing backflips on his verse.

Where they do succeed, when so many other bands of this type fail, is that they’re able to keep it humorous without slipping into toilet humor, which to me is never funny. It’s a tightrope they walk well, and while all the songs didn’t win me over, I feel that “The Paper Chase” and “Bang Bang” are by far the best tracks on there. Production-wise, the music is tight, fun, and catchy with live guitars, drums, and other instrumentation mixed with more electronic elements like turntables, drum machines, and keyboards. I do feel that some of the mixes could have been tighter and that the album as a whole would have benefited from a better mastering session to give it the punch of other commercial releases.

Still, say what you say about the Krunkquistadors; if someone wants to take their Krunk crown they are going to be in for a fight. How are you going to take the title away from a band that has seven members? That said, I think I got more than my rap quota for a while; I’m going to be listening to Jimmy Buffet for the next six months.