“Marcberg,” the eerie and captivating debut full-length album from the Long Island rapper Roc Marciano, has 15 tracks but only one idea: the preservation of a style long abandoned. Calling Roc Marciano a classicist doesn’t quite do him justice, though. This is an artisanal album, no rhyme or drum out of place. In addition to rapping with morgue-cold delivery — “Turn the tube to Channel 2/And there was you/Your parents just can’t handle the news” — he also produced the album in its entirety, favoring abraded samples and mild, persistent static that gives “Marcberg” a decidedly claustrophobic air. Even in 1995, the year his sound most closely evokes, this album would have been anomalous, almost flamboyantly, tauntingly spare. But the density comes in the rhymes, which are sinister and clever. Roc Marciano even takes an effective stab at a trite conceit on “Jungle Fever,” anthropomorphizing drugs as a woman: “Had to hide you from my mother ’cause you didn’t have color.” That’s what passes for humor on this otherwise entrancingly dark record. More typical is the chilling “Thugs Prayer,” which reads as one long sigh: "Perhaps let a couple off / Skin bubble off / Hustling soft up in the loft / Ain’t no love lost / Just thug lords and drug wars." - Jon Caramanica (New York Times). I was servicing Eternia's At Last album at Fat Beats at the time and Jon asked me for a copy of Marcberg... above was his initial review. Revisit Roc Marci's true school classic below...
Below are additional scans from the 2LP copy of the album...
