With beef flying around in every direction you look, diss tracks dropping at the rate of knots, even AI-infused disses, the mixtape of J.Cole and album of Roc Marciano have somewhat blended into the background of all of this, but I've been listening to them anyway and here is what I think of them.
J.Cole - Might Delete Later
And he did as well! Well, the diss track anyway. The half-hearted 7 Minute Drill a response to Kendrick's ambush that he executed on Future and Metro Boomin's Like That which dropped several weeks ago now. Kendrick with no time for niceties sees only himself on the podium, "motherfuck the big 3, ni**a, it's only big me", which itself was a response to Cole celebrating the fact he Kendrick and Drake are the outright big 3 artists in the game right now, which of course they are (in my opinion).
So Kendrick dissed them both, J.Cole responded in quite a meagre fashion which was branded a "warning shot", with us to expect more further down the line, but immediately after dropping, Cole realised that it ain't him to be like this, apologised on stage and essentially removed himself from the beef. Of course Drake has done the opposite of that, and at the time of writing has released a diss track Push Ups, and released a follow up Taylor Made Freestyle which had features from robot 2pac and robot Snoop Dogg, which was as odd and disturbing as it sounds, and a bit irresponsible from Drake, but whatever, the disses were decent and let's hope Kendrick comes back with something soon.
But apart from all that, J.Cole, released a surprise 11 new tracks on a new mixtape. Though the name of the project suggests we should only take these songs lightly and not to include so much in the canon of his story arc, I think a lot of this project went pretty well. As a sound and style, it's not veering too much away from what we heard on The Off Season, just less conceptual and ambitious, and some of the nice trap beats are not miles away from some of the recent Dreamville projects. On many of the songs his rapping is tight, with smooth and clinical flows, he sounds hungry as ever, with some nice wordplay and bars, the tone of some of the songs are cold-blooded and venomous, but maybe he feels snaked. The track Huntin' Wabbitz is a great example, but also Pricey, Stickz N Stonez, 3001 and Trae Truth in Ibiza contained Cole flexing his lyrical skills that he's sharpened as his career has progressed.
H.Y.B. featuring Bas and Central Cee was cool with the catchiest refrains on the project from Bas, and Central Cee providing a nice change of tone with his distinct accent and he did not let the UK down in that track by any means. Fever was from some clear Drake inspo, but went over quite well albeit a brief track almost playing like a melodic interlude.
Pi was a track that started very well, with lyricists Ab-Soul and Daylyt trading bars going back and forth with technical rhyme schemes and clever wordplay. J.Cole equally brought a proficient and word-filled verse that was hard too, with just one section of the verse which completely let himself down, and also ruined the track, forget letting Nas down, he only let himself down, not to make light of his bullshit lyrics. Potentially a subliminal diss at Kendrick, but the bars where he says, "is you a demon or is that demeanor for the 'gram? Tell us, they plead the fifth, I'm seeing hints of a trans fella, in cancel culture's vicinity, he's no killer trust me, beneath his chosen identity, there is still a pussy". A line that could easily be seen as transphobic, but if not, is just extremely reductive, childish and cringeworthy.
Overall, yeah I think this dropped at a terrible time for Cole and came and went with everyone more bothered about people who are fully-blooded into the industry beef right now. As Cole took himself out of the beef, he took himself out of people's consciousness and took his music away from people's attention, which is a shame, because I think there's some good tracks on this mixtape. Far from his best work, but still showed himself to be sharp with the pen and gave no signs that his next album, The Fall Off, was going to be a fall off in quality. But yeah, J.Cole, leave the punching down off the next album, and if you do punch up again, don't pull it.
Star Track - H.Y.B.
6/10
Roc Marciano - Marciology
I didn't mind his 2022 project with The Alchemist, titled The Elephant Man's Bones, but I didn't love it either. I think it had a bunch of potential with glitzy and textured beats from The Alchemist, but the song writing felt somewhat short of formula, and was forgetful, bleak and under-developed. However, I think on Marciology the product is much more listenable, and a much funner record to digest and experience, whilst still keeping Marciano's trademark cold-blooded sound and wordy rap-style.
Compared to The Elephant Man's Bones, there is so much more life breathing in this new album, take the expensive production on Goyard God which had the glamourous braggadocios lyrics to match. Or the fast and filthy flow on Gold Crossbow where you can clearly hear MF DOOM inspiration in the way he runs through his bars, there's a couple other moments where I hear DOOM on this project too. The simple piano chords and muttered, rough vocal sample made for a great beat that infiltrates and rings round your head. The flow at the start of the second verse was fire, when he spits, "I was cross, so bought a crossbow, your boss is a ho and sucks balls also".
True Love contains another great vocal sample, this time a woman's, the greaziness of the lyrics steps up on this track too, I liked the bar "sleep with my rifle right next to my bible" which is said during the chorus refrains. BeBe's Kids was a lighter and funkier moment, again delivering stop-start flows that come off smooth but technical, easy but hard, and the overall approach to the beat was fresh and the whole off-kilter song was a nice change of pace.
Another highlight I must talk about is Killin' Spree, which is an epic, western-inspired insight into a cold, relentless world Marci's from, and his tongue-in-cheek and cynical lyrics teamed up with his quick and punchy flow match that entirely. As does CRIMEAPPLE's feature here as well, he operates with a nice double-time flow that matches the energy of the track.
Not every track on this project hits or is a banger, the project meanders at time and is less interesting and engaging at points, moreso in the second-leg of the album. Though in the second half you still have those very high points, like Killin' Spree, but also Higher Self and On The Run were great Boom Bap tunes to be enjoyed by the whole family.
With some classic production, I think this is an album that a standard 90's Boom Bap fan could easily get into, but also someone who strays towards quirkier alternative Hip Hop would also appreciate as well. It is from a similar family tree to that of Griselda and Freddie Gibbs, so you can see how as smaller and 'closer to the underground' Roc Marciano may be, there's still a clear demand and enjoyment of this type of Hip Hop at the moment. This album is one of the better ones in my opinion from this gangster rap renaissance. Yep, it's a more than solid album.
Star Track - True Love
7/10
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