From Jay-Z to Tupac to Kanye West, hip-hop's most beloved emcees have found a balance addressing their hardships while maintaining a high level of charisma and charm. Hip-hop is rooted in the racial and economic struggles endured by New York City minorities in the late-1970s and the '80s, but it emerged as a joyful outlet for musicians, dancers and artists in that community. The hip-hop of today has expanded and fragmented, as most growing cultures do, to embrace emcees from all over the social spectrum: gangsters and hipsters, emo kids and skaters. And when a new emcee emerges who combines the classic mold with original style and bravado, there is an undeniable authenticity and credibility to their status as an emcee and the music they create.

No emcee in Tacoma embodies this undeniable blueprint as well as John Crown.

Crown recently released his first project, an EP entitled Before I Wake You Up. He explains the EP "is a precursor to John Crown the emcee." The songs are not brand new. For roughly a year in 2007-08, Crown was one of Tacoma's busiest live performers, and while he removed himself from the scene for three years to give his full attention to his newborn son and escape the politics of local hip-hop, he still felt as though the songs he wrote at that time deserved to come out before his new material.

"It's the not the best quality music, but it's a period of my life that I enjoyed," he explains. "I hope it's good enough for people to want to hear more."

A poet for a decade before he became a rapper, Crown's lyrics are intensely visual. He depicts his past, his present and his dreams using complex stanzas and wordplay. Notable and admirable to me is Crown‘s use of metaphors and similes. These literary tools have recently become a way for emcees to show how clever or creative they can be, but don't always serve a lyrical or literary purpose. Crown uses metaphors as they should be used: to better explain and illustrate his subject matter. Crown couples his stellar writing with a gruff, commanding delivery that demands and maintains the listeners' attention.

A good EP feels longer than it is, and the amount of content, energy and detail Crown shares on Before I Wake You Up makes the project feel like 10 tracks instead of the six it is. Crown's subject matter ranges from his frustration with his nine-to-five to falling in love to balling on a budget, all the while staying true to the overarching theme of optimism in the face of struggle.

The downside of Before I Wake You Up is the production, which comprises standard samples with boring, predictable drums. I remind Tacoma fans these beats are over three years old, and all the producers involved have grown dramatically since.

Crown is hard at work on his depute album with Mike Weed, one of Tacoma's finest beatsmiths. I have been lucky enough to hear some of the new tracks and they may be some of best hip-hop songs ever created in our city.

In the meantime I'll be bumping Before I Wake You Up, and you should too.