{"id":7905,"date":"2022-08-31T19:48:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T00:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=7905"},"modified":"2022-08-31T19:48:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T00:48:43","slug":"review-roc-marciano-the-alchemist-the-elephant-mans-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/31\/review-roc-marciano-the-alchemist-the-elephant-mans-bones\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Roc Marciano + The Alchemist &#8211; The Elephant Man&#8217;s Bones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Look at what time it is! It&#8217;s ALCHEMIST O&#8217; CLOCK!!<\/p>\n<p>Once again, someone lined up The Alchemist to produce an entire album for them. This year, he has made a healthy amount of work from collaborating with Curren$y on <em>Continuance<\/em> earlier this year to Boldy James twice last year (<em>Super Tecmo Bo<\/em> came near the end of December so yes, I&#8217;m counting that as a 2022 album entry!) and producing some select tracks this year for the likes of Benny The Butcher, Conway, Earl Sweatshirt and especially Kendrick Lamar with &#8220;We Cry Together.&#8221; Now, he&#8217;s teaming up with someone who&#8217;s no stranger to him and that&#8217;s Roc Marciano.<\/p>\n<p>Marciano is still continuing\u00a0 on with his work after past projects like <em>Marcielago<\/em> and <em>Mt. Marci<\/em> in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and even producing some projects for other rappers as well with Flee Lord and notable underground MC Stove God Cooks.\u00a0 Now we got some new-ish from these two and I&#8217;m eagerly anticipating to see how it&#8217;ll go.<\/p>\n<p>So how are\u00a0<em>The Elephant Man&#8217;s Bones?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d6ao9KYVm0A?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>First, I&#8217;d say this for the last two Alchemist-produced projects: <em>Super Tecmo Bo<\/em> was slightly impressive as a lean and mean project from Boldy James, and <em>Continuance <\/em>is a decent project from Curren$y with a few tracks I keep going back to (particularly &#8220;Corvette Rally Stripes&#8221;). With this&#8230; it&#8217;s currently my top favorite Alchemist project of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Like Boldy James, Roc Marciano is the type of rapper that is probably not everybody&#8217;s cup of tea. He often raps about his pimp and street shit, his delivery is monotone but with a menacing and gruff tone that makes me take him seriously when he goes on about that life. It also works that he often raps on drum-less production so his voice and delivery is more dynamic going in; although there is mostly some percussion used in some tracks but they&#8217;re never overbearing or take over the track, they blend in seamlessly.<\/p>\n<p>The opening track &#8220;Rubber Hand Grip&#8221; got this tinny jingle-bell production with Roc spittin&#8217; out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is Hoorsenbuhs, you should Google it<br \/>\nMy love language is another matrix<br \/>\nScrew your baby mother like some Cartier love bracelets<br \/>\nH\u0435rm\u00e8s blankets, that&#8217;s a blanket statem\u0435nt<br \/>\nNeed more than handkerchief &#8217;cause we covering all the basics<br \/>\nMight yank you out the whip, strip you naked (Get over here)<br \/>\nNiggas comparing MJ to &#8220;Weird Al&#8221; Yankovic (Huh?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The first single from this &#8220;Deja Vu&#8221; and to quote Rob from Decibel Boost #278, about the aesthetic of this song and most of the production: &#8216;This is what I imagine plays in the background of the finest top quality pawn shops of NYC and I mean that in the best way possible.&#8217; Yes, this song definitely has that. Of course, with some choice bars on there.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Might click off your light switch, but my heart is righteous<br \/>\nAs an artist, I&#8217;m often slighted<br \/>\nY&#8217;all must be on that Barbra Streisand (Coked up)<br \/>\nHigh like the coke prices, sacrifice the goat as lifeless<br \/>\nHo said the homie gaslighting, that&#8217;s what she told a psychic<br \/>\nI was just gassin&#8217; that old white bitch (Gassin&#8217;)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7G8Z7WDfzA4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is also some braggadocio, flaunting, and flexing but not in the way you would normally expect, especially on &#8220;Quantum Leap&#8221; where he says his body is quality over quantity, as in he doesn&#8217;t just release anything out there. The title track &#8220;The Elephant Man&#8217;s Bones&#8221; has this gorgeous soul sample with the classic piano sound and Roc just sounds incredible on this.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and like most projects of his, the features are lean, mean, and they deliver on their verses. Action Bronson appears on &#8220;Daddy Kane&#8221; with this beat that absolutely bumps whenever I play it; Boldy James was solid on &#8220;Trillion Cut&#8221;; Knowledge The Pirate does his thing on &#8220;Zip Guns,&#8221; and I admit that I was surprised we got an Ice-T feature on this album as he&#8217;s on the song &#8220;The Horns of Abraxas,&#8221; but the thing is Ice-T isn&#8217;t doing any rapping on here: he&#8217;s doing dialogue on getting rid of a body, dumping it off somewhere. It wasn&#8217;t what I expected but the beat and song overall is pretty solid.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SmKBscTUeAU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Overall, I dig the hell out of this album. It&#8217;s continuing the streak of good to great collab albums with the Alchemist, and he has made some exquisite and cinematic beats that goes great with Roc&#8217;s lyrics and has that grim street yet opulent vibe you always get from him. It&#8217;s definitely highly recommended if you&#8217;re looking for some underground hip-hop with a little edge to it.<\/p>\n\n<p><em><strong>FINAL VERDICT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>BUY IT!<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Someone&#8217;s bones could end up being someone&#8217;s treasure.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>THE ELEPHANT MAN&#8217;S BONES is on ALC Records\/Marci Enterprises\/EMPIRE. You can purchase the album via <a href=\"https:\/\/rocmarci.com\/collections\/catalog\">The Official Roc Marciano Store<\/a> on CD, digital download, vinyl, cassette or listen to it on streaming services.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look at what time it is! It&#8217;s ALCHEMIST O&#8217; CLOCK!! Once again, someone lined up The Alchemist to produce an entire album for \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/31\/review-roc-marciano-the-alchemist-the-elephant-mans-bones\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"MusicRecording","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,631,1608,1194,503,1657,822,1458,1656],"class_list":["post-7905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-alc-records","tag-collaboration","tag-hip-hop","tag-marci-enterprises","tag-roc-marciano","tag-the-alchemist","tag-the-elephant-mans-bones"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/roc-marciano-the-alchemist-elephant-mans-bones-220504.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-23v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7914,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions\/7914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}