Hot take: CXR will be the next Dreamville or TDE.
The CXR (crxssroadmusic) label has potential to be one the most talented labels for years to come. Currently consisting of Chris Patrick, Dende, Noah, Erykah Officer, and producer and musician Billy Blunt, they are packed with enough talent and skill to carry them with this group alone. I am NOT saying they will individually be as big as Cole or Kendrick, but they do bring a lot to the table. One of the biggest separators in the long run from TDE and Dreamville has been activity by way of simply dropping music. When I’d rank the two against each other previously, I would always pick TDE (primarily because of Kendrick). Overtime, I realized consistency gets the job done. Without drops, you lose relevance. From what I’ve seen so far, CXR has some of the hardest working people in the game. Talent + consistency = a winning formula. Only question is how / who they will add to the CXR gang (fingers crossed on Ausar). Let’s take a quick look into the current artists.
Chris Patrick and Dende have been two of my most listened to artists since X-Files dropped. If you haven’t heard that, go tap in. This was a 50-minute album that dropped August 10th. In a little under 4 full months, Chris ended up being my 6th most listened to artist for the entire year largely thanks to this album. I know Kendrick won the Grammy, but this and Few Good Things by Saba were neck and neck for MY album of the year. I had a few songs by him on my phone before this, but I wasn't playing them nearly enough in 2022 to run the minutes up that much. I first heard Chris on Typical Sh*t by him and Deante Hitchcock. For whatever dumb reason, I still didn’t check his full discography out until X-Files dropped. I think I had 5 songs from Chris Patrick on my phone before X-files. Those tides changed quickly, and this album is also what introduced me to Dende.
Rooftops is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. You have no choice but to FEEL this song. This track featured great talent with Dende hitting some incredible runs and Billy Blunt credited as musician. After hearing it, I immediately looked up as many Dende songs as I could find. As a pleasant surprise, I thought Apple Music had the wrong guy credited for the songs I was finding due to Dende’s versatility. To this day, I do not know how to label him. He’s been getting well-deserved notoriety for his R&B efforts on Before We Crash so it will be interesting to see which primary direction he takes going forward. His latest drop "95 Civic" follows up with a heavy R&B presence so this might hint at how things will be going forward. Dende undoubtedly has a healthy lead for my number one artist this year. I’m going to plug a CXR playlist at the bottom, but here are 5 must-listens for Chris and Dende not previously mentioned.
Chris: It looks like any song with a City + Interlude in the title is a classic, so I’m going to start by grouping the first two into one: Seattle Interlude/Oakland Interlude, Zendaya, Scared, Gang Activity, and Tired.
Dende: B/Alter (they are separate songs, but are meant to run together perfectly), Nightmares, Round trip to Atlanta, Part Time Dreamer, and Quarantine.
Billy Blunt currently has musician or producer credits on projects by Dende, Xavier Omar, Deante Hitchcock, Blk Odyssey, and many more. That lets you know the level of artist he’s working with and quality of work he’s putting out. 04 by Redveil, Hang Low by Blk Odyssy, Feelings 4 You by Xavier Omar… ALL HEAT! The list goes on and on. I’ll be honest, I did not realize he produced what he did until I got to writing this blog post. Impressive! With that being said, keep as eye out for Billy. He is clearly one of the best and most talented producers in the game.
Erykah Officer does not have as much out yet, but you can’t discount her talent. She has amazing collabs with both Chris Patrick and Dende as well as some great singles of her own. Must-listens: Doctors Orders, Close to Angels, Caught Up, and Lost in Silence all show that the sky is the limit for Erykah.
Noah is CXR’s equivalent of Dreamville’s Lute. If you listen to Lute you know those are high praises. He and Chris go bar for bar on Changes (track 5 on X-Files). I expect to see him exponentially gain notoriety as the year progresses. Must-listens: Sh!t On, Moving Different, Casamigos, Calamari, and Breather.
At the end of the day, these artists' future fame and success depend on the world’s appetite for true music. One thing is for certain though: there is NO shortage of talent at CXR.
See below for the CXR playlist. I don’t think there’s a bad song added. Enjoy the vibes!
