Hempstead, Lengthy Island-born MC Roc Marciano has regularly referenced his stage title along with his undertaking titles: Marcberg, Marci Beaucoup, Marcielago, to call a number of. His new launch is Marciology, which dropped with a thriller comic-derived album cowl that ominously mentions “a cult…..”
In fact, greater than a decade and 11 tasks faraway from his early days in Busta Rhymes’ orbit, Marciano already has loads of supporters sipping the Kool-Support. Since setting his profession on a brand new path with 2011’s Marcberg, he’s spawned a cult fanbase that reveres him for reviving the rap underground along with his minimalist manufacturing and assonant, sordid rhymes. One can overly hold forth on his influence, or state it like this: Marciology dropped on the identical night time of a Beyonce album, and plenty of rap followers selected to take heed to him first.
That loyalty was properly rewarded, as Marciology once more demonstrates why Roc is considered one of rap’s most unusual voices — regardless of what number of artists attempt to experience the wave. Whether or not they realize it or not, any indie rapper scribing crime epics on drumless loops and promoting them direct-to-consumer is indebted to Roc. He opts to remind folks on the Marciology single “Crossbow,” the place he rhymes, “Shit isn’t new, we want a reboot / They took what we do and repeat the loop / It’s gettin’ simpler to sleep by / I’m simply speakin’ fact.”
The couplets exemplify his best strengths in tandem: his slick diction and knack for stacking multi-syllabic rhymes collectively. The Roc Marciano expertise seems like observing a grisled boxer go at it with a heavy bag, with a trend reference as a jab, then flurries of multis coming at totally different speeds and angles. On “True Love” he rhymes, “The Cartis with the Marni slippers/How I slid out the social gathering with gaudy bitches/Onerous to withstand, my physique totally different just like the Karma Fisker/Y’all all washed, it’s a laundry checklist of you sorry niggas.” And on “Tapeworm” he raps, “I used to be in Saks fifth buying a jacket, the nerve of those jackasses/My savage received murders on his jacket/I’m too excessive class to work with purse snatchers,” packing a brag, a menace, and a hilarious affirmation into simply a number of bars. Generally, Roc delivers concise knockout blows like a line on “Larry Fowl”: “I’ll go in your mouth with out cost from Al Haymon.”
These multi-sprees serve totally different capabilities. On some junctures of Marciology, he’s utilizing simply 6-8 bars to color the sort of visible most writers fail to seize in a complete verse. On the Larry June-featured “Unhealthy Juju,” considered one of two Alchemist productions on the album (together with “Greater Self”), Roc writes about an obsessive girl, telling her “you possibly can really feel the dangerous juju in you, and your flat is, a one bed room residence in manhattan/With only a stool and a mattress, a shrine with a flick of me and a Gucci jacket.” And it’s price noting how he takes an intentional pause between saying “in you” and “and your” to maintain his stream, an professional instance of mastering the principles to interrupt them.
And although Roc largely depicts himself as an elite rapper-slash-crimelord with first-world issues (“I can solely fuck so many Braziilian buttlifts,” he laments on “Went Diamond”), there are sprinkles of real-life knowledge all through the undertaking. He rhymes, “a person’s worst enemy is his delight and ego” on “Went Diamond,” then “don’t get caught within the trickbag/Can’t have one foot in rap and one in quicksand/That shit don’t make no sense fam” on “LeFlair.” These moments add a dynamism to his strategy, and primarily based on the harrowing story he informed Rolling Stone about his winding profession in 2021, he has had sufficient life expertise to supply a barely heavier dose of recreation on this album. Traditionally, essentially the most transcendent street-oriented tasks are those that interlace gloating and gunplay with classes from expertise. Contemplating Roc’s summative potential, Marciology would have been even stronger with a number of extra of these traces labored in.
Nonetheless, Marciology is one other wonderful assortment of one-of-one rhymes over a wide range of beats. Roc takes on 10 of the 14 of them, giving himself a assorted canvas (producer Animoss crafted “Goyard God” and “Tapeworm”). The eponymous album opener appears like he’s creeping by a horror film hoping Jason doesn’t spot the gleam off his Patek. “Went Diamond” is quintessential Roc, meshing a lush string chop and shimmering cymbals, whereas “True Love” provides the album a West Indian vibe. “On The Run” is reliant on a beguiling vocal chop, and album nearer “Floxx” performs fluttering horns towards a bass riff that provides the jazzy composition simply the correct sprint of sinistry.
Roc additionally explores a rock vibe on “Killin Spree,” the place Crimeapple dishes probably the most memorable traces on the album, rhyming, “I’ll stomp you wearin’ silk like Tupac Shakur.” The options right here largely do a robust job of maintaining with Roc, particularly latest PIMPIRE signee GREA8GAWD on “Larry Fowl,” who decrees “I’ve been good since Iceberg made historical past“ throughout a fiery verse. Roc Marciano has been too, and now he has yet one more album to stake his declare.