MEET THE PARK ANGEL [CMRNPRKR DEBUT ALBUM + INTERVIEW]

CMRNPRKR‘s debut album finds the Virgnia-bred emcee in a confident state of mind as he emerges from what once was, and purposefully moves toward whatever is to come.

A common saying in Hip-Hop is: You have your whole life to make your first album. Legendary songwriter and entrpreneur Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter was 25 about to turn 26 when he made his debut with Reasonable Doubt. At that time, what separated him as a new artist was his ability to cleverly convey stories about his life from a mature point of view. Plain and simple-he had a level of life experience, which provides something to talk about. Most importantly is the fact that he had time to discover his sound, and then to refine it. This combination made for a well thought-out, carefully crafted, passionately powered, masterful body of work. All from an individual who knew that music was his initial calling in life-who knew that his words would impact the world.

The same can be said for Cameron “CMRNPRKR” Goodman, honestly. His debut album, PARK ANGEL (available now) is a culmination of his life and lessons learned, up until now. Unlike Hov’, CMRN grew up in a two-parent household in a small city in Virginia that is not known for producing famous rappers. He was not raised in or raised by the streets as many hip hop artists were. He spent his time as an adolescent with his homies, hooping, skating, and rapping. The 28-year-old is living evidence that the streets are not the only inspiration for great rap. PRKR is also proof that inspiration for timeless music is not restricted to pain and poverty-it is the product of persistence and passion.

According to CMRNPRKR, he has chip on his shoulder when it comes to his craft. Unlike most people who claim to bear the same, he seeks to prove his supporters right rather than prove the naysayers wrong. He still feels the obligation to do this for his family and his band of brothers. The affirmations of his family and friends serve as the catalyst for his drive and his “never say die” spirit/attitude. When I think of Cam’s assurance and resilience, I think of a popular quote from JAY-Z in which he says, “There’s a knowing in being an artist. You can’t guess. You can’t think. You have to have this knowing that..’Okay it may not work out today. It may not work tomorrow. But this is the right thing, and this is what I’m doing. This is what’s feeding me.”

BreezePark, the group that PRKR was a member of for the first six years of his rap career, sold out The NorVa (capacity of 1,500). (All four members being under 20 years old at that time). The popular music venue in Norfolk, VA has played host to such artists as Pusha-T, The Lox, and Playboi Carti. Now, eight years removed from the group’s first project, CMRNPRKR’s pen is as sharp as ever, and he produces potent lyricism that appeals to hip hop heads across multiple generations.

Back in May of 2023, the album’s first single “HIIIGHER” was released. This triumphant song, produced by Mathaius Young, marked the official return of the rapper. The album’s second and origin story-like single, “Angel Child”, produced by EYEZECK, came in the middle of September. It also was introduced alongside a commercial-style video featuring CMRN receiving an encouraging letter from his mother. Both of these tracks were shared with high-level visuals directed by OG Films.

Ahead of PARK ANGEL‘s unveiling, the Virginia native dropped a statement-making freestyle on Drake’s “Red Button.” Over the Ovrkast and Lil Yatchy constructed instrumental, CMRNPRKR leaves no stone unturned as he starts by talking about his mentorship by Grammy award winning songwriter and record producer Teddy Riley (“Wise and melanated / Teddy said I’d be a star, look what the time created / Knew that I could take it far, look what my mind created”), He also spits about the regional conversation around the time it’s taken for him to make his official leap into the rap stratosphere (“A lot of conversation mixed in with some observation / Will he ever drop again? Time to kill the conversation / Time for me to raise the bar, rise up outta isolation”). There are plenty of bars that will make a listeners faces scrunch up: “Greatest out my era in this shit ima say it again. Pat Bev vibes with the lines, in a state to defend. Feeling like a prison staff, I do not play with this pen.” He then follows those up with four more bars. CMRN’s verse then goes into lines about his past and how he’s always had aspirations to be great and to make it. Sprinkled all throughout are name-drops of familiar spots in his hometown of Suffolk and its surrounding areas, like “Breezeport Apartments.” The emcee finishes with a line to signal the go ahead to release his new project. This is a creative and cool way to make a statement out of a popular instrumental-by bringing it into your world and making it your own, then using in the same moment to announce something that has been long-awaited. With not a line wasted in this freestyle, I believe that this song was a preview to the lyrical potency that was to come on the album.

PARK ANGEL feels like a pure and refreshing exhale. The artist’s words hit like a motivational word from your cousin who you know used to rap, but that is now about to really excel in it. This album is a love letter to the past, a welcome the present, and a hopeful look toward the future. In this conversation we spoke with CMRNPRKR and his manager, Hunter “Rove” Ingham, about the album’s creative process, their new record label: All Indie Records, and more.

This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.

GROOVERELLY: When did you start putting this project together?

CMRNPRKR: The first time I ever said Park Angel was during the last year of BreezePark. I remember we were driving around-coming from Norfolk and going out by where my homie lived, in Portsmouth. I was just thinking about the phrase, “Park Angel.” I told Rye (a former BreezePark member). I don’t even think he heard me at the time but I told him that it was going to be my album title. To me, the name has duality to it. You have to park side which is the rapper, and then when you look at the angel aspect of it too-they intertwine perfectly. It matches the music and the colors. It’s majestic but strong. It feels like an exhale. That’s what the album feels like to me.

ROVE: Since April of last year. It was when we started prepping “HIIIGHER”. To fully record everything, pick what we wanted, and put our stamp on it-it took about five months.

“The first time I ever said Park Angel was during the last year of BreezePark.”

GROOVERELLY: It sounds like you guys made a solid plan and then stuck to it.

CMRNPRKR: When Rove spent those three months in the crib with me, before he went to New York, he was like “Before I leave, this album will be done. We’re going to do this.” And he stayed on me about it. There were a lot of days that I would come home from working 12 to 13-hour-shifts and he would say, “If this is what you want, this is what you have to do.” And never did he just send me up into the studio. He was in there with me the whole time. He’s one of the few people that I trust because he knows music, talent, rap, and stuff outside of rap. Him and I have a grand approach to everything. We think about the whole world in the scheme of what we make and create. That way, we can’t be kept in a box. 

ROVE: We’re just honest with ourselves. We’re passionate, and I know and understand Cam well enough that he can take an honest critique from me and not get mad. I come from a musical background too. I played the trombone for five years and I played percussion in middle school. So I’m more than just a listener. I actually did it.    

GROOVERELLY: Where did you record most the album?

CMRNPRKR: Portsmouth. In the crib. Right upstairs in “All Indie Studios.” I just [recently] bought all of that [recording] equipment. One of my biggest goals when I got started in the car business was to earn enough money to buy a whole studio setup. I’m only about fifteen minutes away from where I grew up, on Nansemond Parkway. Visiting my [childhood] crib has been crazy, too. Back at that time, I didn’t know I wanted to be a rapper. Even up through my high school years, I thought I was going to go to college and play basketball. My mom was the one that really inspired me when she told me that I needed to answer my calling in making music. The following year, basketball began to not really work out for me. I could feel the music pulling me more and more. 

GROOVERELLY: What things helped you maintain inspiration throughout the creative process?

CMRNPRKR: Visiting my old crib, and listening to old BreezePark records and stuff I did before this era. Not too long ago, my dad told me that I wasn’t rapping like how I used to. He was like “Listen to the Dead Presidents freestyle that you did when you were 15.” The hunger that I heard in myself at that time-you would’ve thought I had nothing to my name, but I was doing completely fine. That was my mentality though: I want to kill everything. That’s why my father will always be a huge inspiration. He was actually the first person to tell me I wasn’t a rapper, back when I was messing up in school. But I really believed in this shit.

There’s four people that have helped mold me into what I’ve become. My dad is the first, because he is a tastemaker. He had a taste for what music was fire. Second, is Cortez from The Perfect Play. He was one of the first ones to have audacity at his crib. I used to put a mic over the bunk-bed ladder, stand on a phonebook and record freestyles. He was the first one to stop the freestyle, mid-song, and challenge me about meaning what I said on the microphone. He has always been an inspiration and a source of what got me to where I am now. Rove is third because he just knows me. He sent me the beat for “Angel Child” and told me that I needed to rap over it because he knew that I would like it. As soon as I turned it on…boom. He was the biggest one standing behind that record, too. 

ROVE: We made “GODSPEED” together on FaceTime.

CMRNPRKR: Right. I found the beat and played it for him right before I was about to record. And last but not least…PLAY (Christian Dillard aka PLAY aka playknows). There is no me without him.

GROOVERELLY: Yeah, that’s 10+ years of brotherhood, and counting.

CMRNPRKR: And he still has the same hunger as the 17-year-old version of himself. He’s one of the most fearless people I know, and it encourages me to be more fearless as well. His biggest thing for us, is to do what we do, and keep it moving.    

GROOVERELLY: Tell us about the vision you came up with for the album’s front cover?

CMRNPRKR: I knew that when I came up with the title I wanted there to be an all-white element. In certain parts of every music video that you’ll see throughout the album, I’ll be wearing all-white at some point. There’s something majestic, but also defined [about that look]. Where you can feel the firmness of the message. I knew that I wanted to look angelic and to have a colorful background of some sort.

“There Is something majestic, but also defined [about that look]. Where you can feel the firmness of the message.“

PLAY took that [photo] at the top of Mount Trashmore (Virginia Beach, VA). Shoutout to the homie Blue (BreezePark Blue), who was one of our group’s group members. He pulled up and it was our first time seeing him in years, and he even helped us with our lighting. That was a big moment.

This isn’t just an album. It is a moment. This is what was in my brain; I created the “Park Angel” character. I’ll probably be another character the next time around. It’s going to be me, but just different sides of me that will reflect in each one. But this one is the heart, and it’s a pure album. It is the nucleus of what will expand to become everything else.

GROOVERELLY: Tell us about the track you created with Khi Infinite, “PRAY4ME”, and how it came about?

CMRNPRKR: The song was a product of me going through YouTube and looking for beats. At the end of the album [process], I found myself doing things that I would do in my BreezePark days. Like looking for type-beats. That one was a Mac Miller and Saba type-beat. I played it for my dad and he told me that it was a hit waiting to happen.

I’ve always wanted to work with Khi Infinite so it is dope to get that one. I listen to a lot of his music, so when I heard the beat, it sounded like one of his songs as well. I’m a huge fan of his work, but he was also a huge fan of us as a group (BreezePark) when he was coming up. When we were in the studio together, he mentioned “Drought” and how crazy it was for us to make that. That is hard and it shows how far your stuff can travel. Because you never know who is [actually] listening. He did his thing [on “PRAY4ME”], though. He came in [the studio] and it was quick. When I was writing my own lyrics, I knew that they were going to impact somebody. 

GROOVERELLY: Was the hook already written? 

CMRNPRKR: Nah, he came in with a vibe from listening to the beat beforehand. 

ROVE: But Khi wanted to know more of what the song was going to be about, and what the album was about. He wanted to understand. Then he took what we said and did what he did.

CMRNPRKR: If I ask you to get on a record with me, I want you to bring your world to mine. Do your thing, and then I’ll level it out. I always try to make sure it’s a big moment with whoever I work with.  

GROOVERELLY: Talk to us about how you went about creating the “ANGEL CHILD” visual.

CMRNPRKR: That was fun. That video is hard. Rove and I already had an idea of where we wanted to go with it. One night we stayed up, watched a bunch of music videos and saved reference points. Then we figured out the locations. I told him that I’ve always had a vision of me in front of the crib I grew up in, wearing all white. We brought it to OG Films (Oscar Grant – Film Director) and he brought it home for us.

ROVE: OG listens really well. That is what separates him from a lot of people.

CMRNPRKR: He considers your vision, for sure.

ROVE: He brings no ego into the shoot, either, and treats the project like its own. You would think he was a part of All Indie, the way he understands us. We talk a lot, too, throughout the process. Shoutout to Sergio Lorenzana, too. He is the one who actually does the filming.

GROOVERELLY: So, Sergio is the DP (Director of Photography)?

ROVE: Yeah, OG also gets some VHS camera footage, too. They are a fire duo. I don’t think anybody talks about that, though. 

CMRNPRKR: Especially with the standard that they are setting now. That’s why after the first video we did with them-I told Rove that for as long as we can work with them, we’re going to do just that.

GROOVERELLY: Do you have any more songs on the album that have visuals in the works? 

ROVE: “PARKSIDE FREESTYLE”, and probably “GODSPEED.” But there’s nothing set in stone. There are so many songs that deserve videos. 

GROOVERELLY: Do you have a favorite track? If so, why?

CMRNPRKR: Right now it is between “PARKSIDE FREESTYLE” and “GODSPEED.” I’ll go with “GODSPEED” because of how that came together. With production and post production by Lu Alex and CJ Saylor, who were on the original STRANGERS EP intro playing the keys and the saxophone. I’m also going with that song because it comes from the soul of BreezePark. If you listen to it, it’s from the soul of STRANGERS (2015) and sounds like it could’ve been on that EP. That’s another reason why the album is called PARK ANGEL. It’s where I come from-that’s the gang and the group. And I feel like that is where I stood within the group.

ROVE: It’s between “GODSPEED” and “FEELS”. I also like the interlude.

GROOVERELLY: Describe this body of work in one word.

CMRNPRKR: Soul.

ROVE: Colossal.

GROOVERELLY: Who were the first ones outside of the creative process that you played the album for?

ROVE: Rye’s parents. They were the first ones that we went to like, “Here, listen to what we made.”

GROOVERELLY: What were their reactions?

CMRNPRKR: His mom was emotional. She expressed to me how grateful she was that I was still keeping the vision alive. They were both just proud of us.

ROVE: His pops was critiquing it too-telling us which ones were very good songs to him.

CMRNPRKR: Yeah, he was really breaking things down while listening to the project.

ROVE: Yeah. Shoutout to Rye’s parents. We wouldn’t be here without them.

CMRNPRKR: On Misty Ridge Lane (Suffolk, VA). I talk about that on “ON EVERYTHING.” Rye’s pops believed in us so much that he went to Lowe’s and built a whole studio in their garage. Over time we added more and more to it. We ending up having to illest set up and we used to be in there everyday. Rye’s parents didn’t care. They fed us and they took care of us. They even took long drives to see our first opening events.

GROOVERELLY: Outside of making music, what do you do for leisure?

CMRNPRKR: I watch YouTube and drive my car.

ROVE: He’s a family person, too.

CMRNPRKR: Right. I kick it with my dad all the time and I go out to Carolina to spend time with my mother. Sometimes Rove will come with me. That’s the thing-it isn’t just a creative relationship we have. That’s my brother. He knows my family, front to back, and they know him the same way. Even if I didn’t rap we’d still be like this.

So, yeah, I spend time with my family. I have a niece that is 5-months-old now. That’s been another driving force and another reason for life. Another reason for me to continue taking this shit seriously. There’s so many things I want to do, to take care of my people just for taking the risk that they took [for me]. I owe the world to Rye’s folks and my parents for being as resilient and as supportive as they are. They never stopped believing…so how could I do that?

“This is not just an album.

It is a moment.“