Marlon Craft is a really good artist. I’ll just start this out like that. A few years ago I would have said he is a dope rapper whose skills remind me of some of the underground emcees back in the 2000s. Marlon Craft always had throwback type skills in a modern era and I was all about it. To me he was kind of like a Joey Bada$$ but a little bit more on the low. You can tell which emcees grew up on the boom bap and which ones couldn’t give a f*ck. To each their own but me? Give me the emcee who has respect for the golden era. Marlon Craft always reminded me of the golden era.
Seeing that his pops was a Jazz drummer which helps me understand the versatility in his skills. While Marlon paid so much homage to the 90s hip hop we love so much, watching his career blossom into the artist he has become is remarkable. He’s always been on brand too for as long as I could remember.
The Spotify algos would always remind me how fresh of an artist Marlon is. The past week, one of Marlon’s new songs shuffled into my headphones and I wasn’t ready for it. How did I not know he was dropping? But then this new song comes out of nowhere to my feed and the artwork was really cool and the vibe of the track was on point. Marlon was once signed to a major label where he learned all about the music industry. Now he hustles his music independently and I bet if he comes to town that show is going to be packed.
I listen to a lot of music and Marlon Craft always keeps coming up with tracks I press rewind on. He has songs that make you want to stay and that is hard to accomplish in the era of rap we’re in. And his album name of The Internet Killed the Neighborhood is spot on. Marlon’s track “Analog Man” was the track that popped up in my Spotify algo lately on my Release Radar playlist. From the first few moments of the song, I knew how good it was. You know this song? If not, please listen… Let me know if you are feeling it.
There is no better time than now to start listening to some of Marlon Craft’s music. He’s a true artist and when I listen to him, I hear Mac Miller… I hear Cudi… I hear Lord Sko… I hear Skyzoo… I just hear really good music and it honestly doesn’t even matter where he is from… when he came out… but Marlon Craft is right now.
Marlon reminds me of a jazz musician marching to the beat of his own drum. He will continue to push levels of creativity with each release and the new one is dope. “Together Sad” is the one I have had on repeat… Have you bumped yet?