#bitterdose

New Willie The Kid and Roc Marciano...is there any better way to close out the day?

“They wonder why I don’t wear motherfuckin’ jewelry...it’s because I am a gem. Me.” - John “Rosebudd” Dickson

“How can I be demonized for speakin’ on the shit I’ve seen with these eyes / the streets is hot as grease, he got deep fried...” - Roc Marciano

It’s very hard to explain Roc Marciano to someone that doesn’t “get” Roc Marciano. It’s just not easy to describe his skill set to anyone that grew up thinking of rap as just another type of club music. If today’s hip-hop industry has become a case of trendy fruit-flavored vodka bottles, Roc Marci is more like a glass of imported whiskey that’s been aged in a smokey barrel. If most rap fans today are happy to get turned-up off a box of wine, Roc Marci fans would be more like a group of demanding old sommeliers, arguing about where the grapes came from. 

Roc Marciano is cut from the same cloth as many 90′s rap legends that were skilled at embellishing the life and times of drug dealers, or those that aspire to be the MVP at a Player’s Ball (i.e. the brand of pimp culture embodied by the likes of the real John “Rosebudd” Dickson, pictured above), but he is not one to demand the spotlight. He’s not known for cooking up catchy hooks for Hot 97 shine, or connecting with the hottest mainstream producers to push an iTunes single. Nevertheless, for many, Roc Marciano has been one of the best in the biz for some time now. 

With roughly two decades in the game, the reigning king of tough, minimalistic hip-hop has built a hard as steel discography, and managed to stay relevant from his early work with the Flipmode Squad and The UN, on through a strong resurgence of boom-bap in recent years. It can be argued that many of Roc’s younger peers (including frequent collaborators like Action Bronson, The Winners and Griselda Records) would not have had much of a lane to build their careers on without the success of Roc’s highly regarded Marcberg album back in 2010. Now in the first quarter of 2018, Roc Marciano has dropped a rap album of the year contender with Rosebudd's Revenge Pt. 2: The Bitter Dose, proving that in a quick-fix business there is still plenty of room for more traditional, “classic” NYC rap that is meant to be closely listened to over an extended amount of time.

Almost exactly one year ago, I was on my Honeymoon, visiting the UK for the very first time. At one point during the trip I recall taking Roc Marciano’s new album, Rosebudd’s Revenge (Pt. 1) through the London streets. My memory of strolling through Notting Hill to the sounds of “Marksmen”, “Herringbone”, “Gun Sense” and “Burkina Faso” might have been my reasoning for why I regarded it as my favorite Roc Marci project at the time (not a popular stance amongst Roc stans). But after playing it consistently for the rest of 2017 and up to the present, I can confirm that it is still my favorite Roc album for many other reasons. I believe that production-wise, flow-wise, and lyrically, it is Roc’s perfect album...rhyming in a tight pocket, every word and rhyme seeming to be off the cuff, while somehow also being carefully thought out...funneling raw, sonic experimentation through the lens of what many consider traditional East Coast hip-hop. 

In that sense, Roc Marciano’s Rosebudd’s Revenge Pt. 2: The Bitter Dose feels like a continuation of Pt. 1. This new album reads as a pimp-tastic continuation of a tough but glorious life.  Bitter Dose is Roc’s world, and in his world he is T’Challa reigning over a very different type of kingdom - this one a stark, urban landscape - but he is equally proud, equally wise, and equally great. With any Roc Marci album, we get hard, darkly beautiful beats, pared with low-key sharp lyrics and wordplay (I say "low-key" with the highest level of respect, since Roc doesn't shout his punchlines from the mountain tops, the gems tend to unravel after multiple listenings), and with RR2 we get more of the same, but Roc does seem to have an extra bounce in his step over the course of this album.

For the uninitiated, you learn pretty much all you need to know about what Roc represents from the opening track, "Respected". No overdramatic intro needed here, because for Roc it's all about the beats and bars, so he gets right to it. From “fox fur’s on my evening coat / I gave these heathens hope” to the ridiculous bars he rattles off with the couplet that follows “you grew up in houses, we grew up in housing” it’s not hard to see why a man like Roc Marciano would be drawn to the winnings associated with the lifestyle of a flashy gangster or peacocky pimp. Later on in the album he dives into his past more with “67 Lobby”, as a proud Marci declares “I used to sling crack out the lobby at 67...now I live in heaven.” For a young Roc Marciano, a man like Rosebudd might have seemed like a Paul Bunyon-esque figure, and that vision sounds more like a reality on RR2.

Feelings of pride permeate throughout the album, as Roc sounds like he’s more comfortable with his role in hip-hop now than ever before. One of the key differences between Rosebudd’s Revenge Pt. 2 and his previous work is that Roc really seems to  be having...well, a lot of fun on this album! The funny lines are highlighted in bold (“don’t let me catch you talkin’ shit about my momma’s biscuits!”), more than just palette cleansers between tough talk. If Marcberg was designed to feel like a soap box for those living within the hungry underbelly of city life, RR2 is the after-party for surviving that life. In contrast with a Marcberg or Reloaded, even the darkest moments of RR2 feel more indicative of a moment, and not at all a dark place that Roc feels trapped in. Even when he's making threats on "Happy Endings", there's a Phil Drummond reference not far behind. This type of freedom provides Roc with more room to play: break into song if he feels compelled to do so, or rap over a sweet, soulful loop that feels more like the headline act than his actually verse ("Muse" is almost Ghostface-esque), or even harp on someone comparing him to Ralph Macchio!  

If there is a complaint to file against Rosebudd’s Revenge Pt. 2, I would say that there is less of a clear separation of song direction on this album than on some of his previous projects. I would argue that many of the verses could be swapped between tracks and be equally effective, which is not by any means a unique criticism of many good rap albums, from any era, but with these early listenings I find RR1 to be a bolder step when it comes to approaching each track as an individual *song*, rather than as a collection of different beats for him to get busy over. But it's hard to nitpick when the MC is rhyming at Roc's level - and he is going in at a very high level with this album.

Fans have been notably impressed by soaring, soulful cuts like "Bohemian Grove", “Happy Endings”, "Power" and "Corniche" (which features the strongest verse we have heard from Action Bronson in some time - the only guest on the album apart from frequent partner in crime-rhyme, Knowledge The Pirate), but for my money's worth Roc's gifts are best captured on track s like "Kill You", "The Sauce", “Respected”, “Major League” and "C.V.S.", where his icy growl cuts through standout production so chilling it could be the soundtrack to zombies rising from the grave. On the latter, Roc simply blitzkriegs the beat with bars like, “187s fellas / cane sellers / back when Kane was sellin’, I had the big chain with the name embedded / Made some bread, and my ladies aided and abetted / the Mercedes ain’t rented, I was saving up to get it.” I mean...damn. Roc knows better than most that how you deliver the message can trump the message itself. There are a *ton* of quotables to dissect on this album - perhaps his most lyrically impressive one - such as his second verse on “Tent City”, another clear nominee for strongest on RR2 (“can’t hit reverse and pay for things I ain’t earned / I heard the herb was dipped in sherm, bitches’ vision blurred / the German engines purr like leopards / couldn’t get a gig at Eckerd, they said my past was checkered / my ghetto pass is good, I never had to check it...” I mean, damn again).

Even with his celebrated discography, Roc somehow remains an under-appreciated producer on the mic. Here on Pt. 2, he handles even more of the production than he did on the last album, and the effect is an album that feels consistent without sounding repetitive. Above all else, Roc excels at setting the mood, be it the menace of cuts like “Kill You” and “The Sauce”, or the playful bounce he provides on “Saks Fifth”.  It also needs to be said that the Arch Druids collective must be the greatest under-the-radar production team in hip-hop right now. I am not entirely sure of how many producers make up the Druids (or even if they have dropped the Arch Druids name entirely?), but across RR1 and RR2, Animoss and Don Cee have contributed some truly impressive work.

I don’t write a lot of album reviews (especially not so soon after a limited release), because I hate to overanalyze art when I feel that the music artist deserves a carefree listener, and not one that's listening for material to write about. But given the long life and replay value of Roc's previous releases, and how fascinating his success story is in this industry, I think the best contribution I can make in order to respectfully celebrate the man’s catalogue, is to write about his work and share it with others as much as possible. Roc Marciano made a great rap album with Rosebudd’s Revenge Pt. 2: The Bittder Dose, and only time will tell how great it truly is. You probably won’t find another album out right now with anyone rapping at this level over the course of a full project. This is head-nodding music, good for any time of year, but perfectly paired with hoodie season. Late 90's inspired underground hip-hop isn't just surviving in 2018, it's thriving. Cheers to the Roc, and thank you once again.

Purchase Rosebudd’s Revenge Pt. 2: The Bitter Dose here:

https://rocmarci.com/

[For anyone interested in my last album review, Mach-Hommy’s impressive H.B.O., you can peep that here]