Crit Morris

How yall Feeling Crit Morris Music??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTfdfursnJs&feature=youtu.be … - Mike Dean

Crit Morris is the face of the larger Crit Life collective, another young, fresh, and dangerous group. They have the likes of OG Maco and Cardo checking for them, and they seem to be picking up steam. The Crit Life boys are definitely wavy as fuck. They own the youth, and their “Free Wifi” parties damn near riotous. Their vibrant, “rap-and-roll” music—shit, their entire vibrant, “rap-and-roll” movement—has played a large part in the new life breathing through the metro area’s lungs. - Noisey Music

There's a very familiar set of circumstances that almost always takes place at a Dallas hip-hop show. Several hours before the national headliner -- e.g., OG Maco, Schoolboy Q, RiFF RAFF or Nipsey Hussle -- takes the stage, a slew of local artists and DJs run the show. As unorganized as it may seem, this is usually when the crowd gets its rowdiest, having a complete blast as it mobs out to the undercards. Every so often, though, the crowd will grow tired of this bait-and-switch tactic and the anticipation that comes with waiting for a big national act such as Schoolboy Q eventually wins out.

Lately, though, a tide has shifted: Local collectives such as Crit Life and We Are Dallas are flipping that undercard status into the main event -- and only rowdier shows and parties have come as a result. Friday night's Free Wifi Fest, hosted by Crit Life at The Door, is but the most recent example of this sea change.

Despite the name, this show was anything but a festival. Sure, it featured over a dozen local artists and a few out-of-towners, plus several DJs. Also, its setting was a formal concert venue. But it was neither a traditional show nor a festival -- and it was all the better for it, as the free-flowing atmosphere of the event worked so much better as a raucous party. The crowd welcomed extended DJ sets, it danced through delayed arrivals and, on the whole, it stage-dove and drank its way toward a great time.

Best of all, the event proved a strong showcase of Dallas' young and talented rap pool with solid sets from Crit Morris, G.U.N, Brandon Fxrd and Trap Mama. Probably the highlight of the party, though, was a DJ set from CardoGotWings. Witnessing the budding relationship between the up-and-coming Crit Life and a producer like CardoGotWings, who has had a lot major producer credits with artists like Wiz Khalifa, Game, and Young Jeezy, says a lot about gaps being bridged in Dallas' rap scene these days.

Just as the event itself did, really. The Dallas rap game is only getting stronger, and events like Friday's continue to serve as proof of this fact. - Mikel Galicia

When summer is ending, you just have to go out with a bang. For the occasion, Born Leaders Entertainment decided to hit Dallas with SummerFest, a festival consisting of some of the hottest artists and craziest performances Dallas could ever see. The show was hosted by Dallas’ favorite collective, Crit Life…meaning this show was absolutely wild from start to finish. Artists included on the line-up were Travis Scott, Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, Robb Bank$, Sir Michael Rocks & Shorty K, and one of Dallas’ local acts, G.U.N - Breanna Loose

Crit Morris & Crit Life perform at JMBLYA music festival 2015 - Breanna Loose

For those that missed such a legendary night, please allow us, Cosign Magazine, to cosign all of the tweets, all of the photos, all of the footage. Everything you heard about the OG Maco show IS everything that it was. “Wild”, “turned upside down”, “outta there”, “too crazy”. People were WALKING on top of the crowd, people were crowd surfing left and right, and Crit Life, per usual, had the whole crowd rocking with them the whole night as members Se7en & Crit Morris co-hosted the show. The stage was literally one big party the whole night! This is said so often, but honestly as for 2015 in Dallas, this seriously had to have been THE most live show we’ve seen in Deep Ellum all year.

We sat down with OG Maco before his performance to talk with him a little bit about his latest project titled “15”, fashion, his recent encounter with the Grammy Award winning co-founder of Def Jam Records, Rick Rubin, and more. You can read this full interview in the new issue, which will be being released in just a few weeks during SXSW! Be sure to hit the release party happening at Status in Austin, TX. As for now, check out the photos from the OG Maco show captured by SayBrea, and our wonderful interning photographer, Blake Lumley. - Cosign Magazine

Earlier in the evening, the crowd only showed signs of life in short moshing bursts as Dallas rapper 7 and his fellow Crit Life crew took on dual roles as the night's hosts and its main support performers. Crit Morris in particular offered up one of the better performances of the night and Crit Life on the whole here seemed to show that its crew has an earnest, vested interested in cultivating a strong culture for Dallas and Fort Worth's younger hip-hop crowds. (And I do mean young: The performers continuously noted that their mothers were in attendance and that this event was taking place on a school night.)

Still, OG Maco was the star here, and his set was the one everyone came to see. Viral hit "FUCKEMx3" went over especially well, and its transition into the predictable night-closer "U Guessed It" made for some emphatic wildin' out. Over the course of that song's performance, Crit Morris climbed on the crowd, OG Maco squatted on stage and the on-stage fans behind him weaved around him, waiting for the hook. When Maco finally let that chorus out, the venue fell into chaos for a couple minutes. And Maco, for all of his talk, seemed pleased enough at that.

But, no, it wasn't the progressive set that OG Maco had promised. He failed on this night to paint himself in a different light. The crowd got what it wanted, though. And, even as OG Maco's future remains in limbo, perhaps there's something to be said for that. - Mikel Galicia

Ranked #3

Speaking of big shows: Crit Life, G.U.N., and a handful of others comprised one of last weekend's better live shows - Cory

Crit Morris returns to cosignmag.com with a new banger titled, “My Way” produced by Euro. I’m sure the city is still patiently waiting for the album to drop. Until then press play below and follow the @CritLife movement! - Cosign Magazine

Crit Morris the third local opener on the bill, was something else entirely. Backed by the whole Crit Life team, Morris had the whole crowd moshing and crowd-surfing. It was a sight to be seen. Heard, too: By the close of the group's set, it seemed as if the whole building was screaming "CRIT LIFE! CRIT LIFE!" and demanding an encore from the promising young up-and-comers. Alas, stage operators closed the curtains -- literally -- on any potential opportunity. - Breanna Loose

Legendary producer/Engineer cosigns Crit Life/Crit Morris on Kanye West forum "KTT" - Mike Dean

Crit Life is a phenomenon. Technically it's a hip hop collective, but in truth it's become a motto, a way of life among Dallas' high school- and college-aged music fans. They add the word "Crit" to the names they use on social media accounts and use all sorts of Crit-related hashtags. Fans become followers, believers and leaders in spreading the word, and Crit Life shows get lines running out the door with hardly any proper promotion done in advance. So what exactly is Crit Life, and how did it get so popular?

At its base, Crit Life is spearheaded by two brothers, with the 18-year-old younger brother Crit Morris serving as its true face. He has been making music for four years and immediately shared it with his older brother, Se7en. Se7en has made his own music, but it was clear that his brother was doing something special. "Something told me it's him," says Se7en. "He's got it."

Shortly after that, Se7en moved to Bakersfield, California for college, but started to formulate an idea for what his brother was doing. "It started as parties out there," he says. "There they say functions, so we had Crit Life functions." Crit is an acronym for "create reveal inspire today." Crit Life wants to inspire people, especially kids who don't believe anything is possible.

Crit Morris' second performance was on a bill with Schoolboy Q back in 2012. Se7en was his hype man back then. "We sucked," Se7en says. "We were bad," Morris agrees. These days, Se7en is the "CEO" of Crit Life. A typical Crit Life show is Crit Morris performing with a few other members of the collective doing opening sets. The shows quickly got better, and so their following began to build.

"It's not a feel or approach," says Crit Cap. He's known Se7en since high school but joined the collective just a year ago. "It's a flow." Crit Life insists that they are just being themselves and it just happens to inspire people. One fan even has a tattoo in appreciation. "It's something you can taste in the air," Morris says of the buzz. "We're catching the attention of the youth because we are youth."

Crit Life have performed at several venues in Dallas, but never in Fort Worth where they live. "People always think we are from Dallas," says Crit Cap. "We work from the outside in," says Se7en, who admits to enjoying the air of mystery surrounding Crit Life. Indeed, with so many artists and fans making use of the acronym on social media, it can be difficult to figure out who or what Crit Life is.

Earlier this month, Crit Life had their biggest show at the We Are Dallas warehouse. The event was only announced about a week prior and the performance space is fairly new in a part of Dallas that few people visit for music. Nonetheless, the venue was full with a line of people outside waiting to get in on a cold night. Crit Life promoted the show simply with a few posts on social media websites. But after that, word quickly spread throughout their tightknit fan base, and beyond.

"We don't want to see nobody standing around," Crit Cap says, about live shows. "You come to a Crit Life event to have fun," says Morris. "At our shows the crowd is a part of the show." Crit Life attracts a very young crowd of high school and college students. It is not unusual for these crowds to jump around and create an environment that feels like a punk rock show. Se7en and Crit Morris admit to being longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers fans, particularly admiring the group's high energy. "I'm still looking to put down a guitar solo on one of my songs," says Morris. It is something he has wanted to do for a long time.

The collective has grown larger. With hip hop artists, producers and singers, Crit Life has a fairly diverse sound. "But the sound people are mostly sticking to is the more aggressive one with trap beats," says Se7en. The sound is also catchy, uptempo and melodic. "It's both aggression and harmonization," says Morris.

Crit Life have released just singles and music videos thus far, but Crit Morris has been working on his debut album for two years and still doesn't have a release date. He admits to being somewhat of a perfectionist. "He really is one of the most lyrical artists," says Se7en. But in the meantime, building the collective's ever-growing community is effort, and reward, enough. "We are the new wave," says Morris. "People connect to our vibes." - Jeremy Hallock