New Sightings: Craft Monroe

Welcome to the first post of New Sightings, a weekly series where I show off an underground artist thats just starting out/is on the rise. How is this different from Musician Monday, Dan? Well my lovely reader, I can answer that question pretty easily if you'll just read the next sentence. Musician Monday highlights already established artists that have a large following anyway; they just aren't mainstream. New Sightings reveals artists that don't have a huge following yet but should be. They usually are pretty local bands to their start and they may have an EP or two, but they aren't established. Now that I've made this distinction pretty clear, lets get on to some real content.

I am so glad that I can be writing this blog post right now about the artist I'm highlighting today. I remember when one of my best childhood friends first started calling himself "Craft Monroe" freshman year of high school. We all thought he was ridiculous that Mike gave himself his own nickname, but this new identity was the beginning of something new, something big. Junior year rolls around, and Mike starts rapping under the name "Craft Monroe". he released his first mixtape with his good friend Kace Monroe called Known By Midterms. I got one of the first hard copies and immediately put it in my disc drive in the car to give it a listen. It was your classic white kid trying out rapping style with the lyrics written during math class rapped over his favorite instrumentals from other rap songs. The Monroes made one more mixtape with a similar style called Rich By Finals. Known By Midterms and Rich By Finals had a homegrown sound, but our high school loved it, me included. Even more impressive, it was nothing compared to what Mike is up to now, but it was his first recorded stuff. Everyone's gotta start somewhere.

Now Craft Monroe is flying solo and he has upped the game. While solo, he has dropped a mixtape called Lost in the Deku Tree that got 10K downloads in a week before being taken down by the music sharing website (shall not be named) for reasons I can only assume being that it was too damn awesome. Rumors are one can still find it online if one searches hard enough. Now Monroe is signed to Paradigm Records, which is a brand new partner to Universal Records. With Paradigm and Universal, he'll be releasing his first studio album called CRAFT this summer along with a mixtape called Junk Food & Cat Naps. Be excited for this guy; Craft Monroe is gonna make it big, and I'm not just saying that cause he's one of my best friends.

Here are my picks for songs you should listen to:

Roger That (3:28)

Mike says he cringes every time he hears this, but honestly it's the most important thing he's written in my eyes. This was his first song he has shown off to the world and it definitely gave him the boost to continue his passion for rapping. Like I said, everyone's gotta start somewhere.

Ferrari (4:18)

I don't have a link to this cause it's on Lost in the Deku Tree, but if you can find it, listen to it. Even though it has a more upbeat beat, don't be fooled; the lyrics are really heavy. It pretty much sums up how and why he got into rapping and how he's staying in. Probably my favorite song so far.

Horrorcore (4:08)

Craft's latest single from his upcoming album CRAFT definitely has an overall darker tone. It's got the classic rap themes and has a great beat. If this is what we are looking forward to for the rest of the album, I'll be very interested to see how he makes it. 

Overall, Craft Monroe looks like your average white kid with an affinity for rap music. Deeper down, he's a lyrically blessed dude that has a good taste in music and is doing big things. What do you think? Let me know in the comments your opinion as well as anyone else you think deserves a spotlight on New Sightings.