Themselves - CrownsDown & Company (2010) CrownsDown & Company completes a trilogy of new releases for Doseone and Jel's revived rap power-duo, Themselves. What began in early 2009 with theFREEhoudini -- the monumental mixtape that reunited a dozen of indie hip-hop's seminal vocalists -- now reaches its apt conclusion as ten gifted producers help reinvent the pair's recently released CrownsDown LP. While that album, in part, paid tribute to rap's golden age icons (Gang Starr, Ultramag, Public Enemy), this companion piece finds artists like Baths, Lazer Sword, Buck 65 and Our Brother The Native seizing upon Themselves' progressive side to create a document firmly of the future. The aggressive swagger of the original material courses through CrownsDown & Company, rearing its ugly head early on in Dälek's remix of "Oversleeping." The New Jersey crew replaces the song's hulking boom-bap with industrial dissonance, clearing the way for Buck to swap the electro-thump of "The Mark" for crashing drums and squealing punk guitars. Darker and meaner still is Lazer Sword's ultra-modern, bass-embraced take on "You Ain't It." Other tracks are instilled with the psychedelic fortitude that informs Dose and Jel's band Subtle. The men of Notwist appear under the 13 & God guise to create a version of "Daxstrong" that seethes with Krautrock's groove-steeped experimentalism. Meanwhile, Our Brother turns "Roman Is As Roman Does" into a sun-spoiled stew of piano, horns and odd effects, and LA ...