Review

Roc Marciano

Marcielago

Fatbeats • 2020

Mobb Deep’s Prodigy opens »Marcielago« with a snappy monologue: »I’ma let ya n***** know something, man. You Know what I mean? Got a lot of fucking garbagebage ass rapper out there«. On his eighth studio album, Roc Marciano doesn’t care about contemporary sound design. In the course of the uncompromising 49 minutes he therefore does without any reversal. Like the cover artwork, which is not stingy with blaxploitation aesthetics, the 42-year-old creates cinematic images in his head with his lyrics. »The dichotomy there’s two sides of me / The one that fires the heat and then there’s the science geek,« is how the New Yorker describes his personality in »SAYLAVI« in flowery words. With a relaxed, yet present flow, Roc Marciano rhymes over samples that are still recognizable as such. From soul music he borrows snippets of vocals, trumpets and drums, which he has piled up seemingly unchanged. The result sounds as bumpy as it is irresistible. He produced twelve of the 15 beats himself. The rest are from ANIMOSS and Alchemist. Musically, Roc Marciano combines the raw of the golden era with the sketchiness of a J Dillas. »I.G.W.T.« sounds as if he was standing in a smoky basement club at the time of recording. He probably did, too, because the songs seem close despite their cinematic grace. Reducing »Marcielago« to the role of a counter-project does not do justice to the record. Nevertheless, the album offers a refreshingly raw sound that the mainstream has long forgotten.