Crenshaw's `Thinking Out Loud' a challenge.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

There are plenty of guest emcees in the Pacific Northwest, but after more than a decade of hip-hop collaborations, Mic Crenshaw finally has released a solo album.

Crenshaw has been living in Portland since 1992, but "Thinking Out Loud" is the first time he has released a project under his name alone. Thanks to help from more than 10 producers, his bitter capsules of heavy, topical matter are easier to swallow.

Crenshaw has written and performed for Suckapunch, Hungry Mob and the (thank goodness) recently renamed Cleveland Steamers, who are now Line of Fire. His spirit of collaboration is intact for the dual CD release party he is headlining tonight at John Henry's with Serge Severe, another Portland emcee with a new solo album, "Concrete Techniques."

"Thinking Out Loud" becomes all the more interesting when you know a little about Crenshaw's background.

In his liner notes, Crenshaw mentions his violent past as an activist against white supremacist groups. "Follow Your Instincts" is about his time in St. Paul, Minn., where, as a teenager in the 1980s, he was part of a multiracial, organized street movement of youth subcultures that chose to fight neo-Nazi groups - literally.

Pumping ominously through the whole track, like a vein about to burst and turn the whole room bloody, is a steady down-tempo beat. The blood starts to squirt with producer Auditory Sculpture's aggressive drums and electric guitars during the hook: "You will respect my name, you will respect my game/ You will respect the struggle from which I came."

The command is hard to ignore; the intense rock sound calls to mind some of Public Enemy's more assertive social commentary. Crenshaw singles out hip-hop and punk activist-artists (X-Clan, Dead Kennedys and others), making the beats fit perfectly with the lyrics.

Although Crenshaw has long since abandoned his violent past, the track is almost an explanation of how he fought for his survival. In his view, the violence was not optional.

On the new recording, Crenshaw deals openly with complicated issues of race, sometimes posing questions he never answers. Most people, even if they disagree with the street activists' methods, would be onboard with the struggle against white supremacists.

But when he swings from outward-directed anger in "Follow Your Instincts" toward more personal matters, a careful listener could become uncomfortable. He poses questions about mixing the races in "2 Way Street," and he jabs at the subtle racism of liberals in "Thinking Out Loud."

On several tracks, he focuses his pen on injustices of war and their relationship to race-based oppression.

Crenshaw's compositions are focused. He's not trying to sound smart by packing every big word he knows into a rambling social critique - a bad habit of the less agile among the so-called conscious hip-hop set.

No, Crenshaw is not trying to sound smart. He is smart. His views cannot be dismissed as merely angry, even if they are presented in a confrontational manner. In drier form, scholars publish similar views in their works about social justice and racism.

If Barack Obama's presidency brings America's racism out of the shadows and into mainstream discussion, people are going to have to think about these uncomfortable questions. The enemy no longer takes the form of lynch mobs or segregated swimming pools.

The enemy might be in believing there is no enemy. Obliterating racism in its current incarnation is a personal battle for people to wage within themselves.

Like thinking of unpleasant things, working out when you are out of shape is uncomfortable. This album is a mental boot camp.

Crenshaw is handing you the dumbbells and asking you to pump out a few more reps.

Concert preview

Mic Crenshaw and Serge Severe

What: Double CD release hip-hop party

With: Animal Farm, Endr Won, A Sol

When: 9:30 p.m. today

Where: John Henry's, 77 W. Broadway

Admission: Free