Crown Royal

It’s a classic story, the once great but now slightly washed up band turning to the new kids on the block to give them a shot in the arm, hoping to recapture past glories and boost a flagging career. Then there was the time that Aerosmith made a record with Run DMC… Yes, the irony can’t really be escaped as Run DMC return with their first album in eight years to find the rock rap crossover that they pioneered (although Anthrax should be given an equal nod) doing platinum style business around the world. The Hollis trio want a piece of the action and so have called on names from hip hop (Method Man, Nas, Mobb Deep, Jermaine Dupri), metal (Third Eye Blind, Sugar Ray) and all points in-between (Fred Durst, Kid Rock) to lend a hand. Give or take a few howlers – Durst’s surprisingly flimsy contribution, an appallingly slick r’n’b take on Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ and Everlast sounding like a pub singer on an otherwise passable version of Steve Miller’s ‘Take The Money And Run’ – Crown Royal manages to live up to the hype surrounding it. Devoid of the tiresome gangsterisms of many of their successors (Run is a man of the cloth now, after all) the lyrics are generally concerned with telling the listener just how much respect the band deserve and cutting up various moments of their career – Kid Rock’s ‘The School Of Old’ is little more than a medley. Whether it will provoke a dramatic change of fortunes in the manner of ‘Walk This Way’ remains to be seen but moments such as the startling opening trio of ‘It’s Over’, ‘Queen’s Day’ and ‘Crown Royal’ itself are more than equal to anything released in the name of rap this year. The kings may have relinquished their crown but don’t rule out a return to the throne just yet.