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Crystal Wise
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Crystal Wise
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Crystal Wise
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Crystal Wise
There’s a 14-acre ranch in East Fort Worth that overlooks downtown. And when I say it overlooks downtown, I mean it overlooks downtown — you can spot all of the recognizable buildings that make up Cowtown’s skyline: the Omni, Burnett Plaza, and the Bass Tower. The way the crow flies, these structures are maybe a mile away. But despite this urban setting, this plot of land is unmistakably a ranch. There are horses (14 of ’em), pigs, dogs, and roosters that crow incessantly, and one gets the occasional whiff of all these animals’ defecation. This spot, which is the quintessence of where town meets country, is the residence of C’ing (pronounced King) Jerome, one of the city’s up and coming singer/songwriters.
I hesitate to put C’ing, now 26, in a box and call him a country singer or a rap artist or a pop star. Truth is, he’s all of the above. Look him up on Spotify and hit shuffle, and you’ll hear bayou-driven slide guitar, deep bass, drum machines, and auto-tuned twangy vocals that shift seamlessly from melodic George Strait-like country ballads to fast-verse hip-hop. In many ways, this 14-acre plot of land is the embodiment of C’ing’s music. And, in many ways, his music is the embodiment of Fort Worth’s own dichotomous nature: where Cowtown meets Funkytown.
“I was always into music, but I didn't think that I'd be taking it on as a career,” C’ing says. “About four years ago, I kind of started doing it. Then I switched over to the country lane and decided to add the pop.”
But the marriage of country and hip-hop/R&B shouldn’t be anything shocking. Perhaps more than any other form of music, both are genres that speak directly to a distinct culture. They’re both on the fringes of the mainstream but popular enough to cross over into the pop charts. The two have more in common than not, and when one grows up with one foot in one culture and one in the other (an image of a cowboy boot and a sneaker immediately come to mind), the synergy of the two seems only natural.
Crystal Wise
“The way I grew up, I call it hood country,” C’ing says. “I grew up both ways. I ain’t gonna say I’m a cowboy, but, I mean, I’m a cowboy. I’m a horseman. I grew in the ranch lifestyle. But I’m also from Polytech. That’s the hood part of it.” His parents were owners of the well-known Poly Grill but ended up moving to Mansfield, where C’ing graduated high school.
So, to C’ing, the sound came naturally. The moment he stood in front of a microphone, it’s just what came out.
“I swear to you, it’s just how it played out. I started doing R&B, right? I started doing R&B traps, but then when I switched to country, it automatically had an R&B twist to it. And then I got on this wave where I was doing a high-pitched voice and started adding a pop beat to it. It just happened. I really don’t know how. It all just blended together.”
The whole hood country thing isn’t a schtick. It isn’t an act. C’ing isn’t deep down a city slicker who happens to enjoy wearing a cowboy hat for fashion’s sake. No, C’ing’s a real damn cowboy who, when asked, will hop on a bareback horse and proceed to impress with horseman skills akin to a trick rider — he didn’t hesitate to lie horizontally on the horse when prompted. The horses he has, he’s raising for standardbred horse racing does standardbred horse racing. You might know this as the kind of racing that has a two-wheeled buggy trailing the horse, a sport C’ing’s been involved with for 10 years.
“That’s what I do. That's my everyday thing. I prepare [my horses] through the winter to get ready for the summer.”
It doesn’t take much for C’ing to admit that it’s his first love.
“Oh, this is everything to me. There are a lot of paths I coulda took. This [riding] saved me.”
But he’ll have to find time between his ranching hours to continue his music career. After all, he’s currently mulling offers from a number of record companies (you might know a few) to sign a deal, and he’s got some important gigs coming up in Nashville. But, like all ranchers, he’ll work from sunup to sundown to ensure everything is well taken care of.
