{"id":272014,"date":"2026-02-03T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272014\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:31:12","slug":"roc-marciano-656-rapreviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272014\/","title":{"rendered":"Roc Marciano :: 656 \u2013 RapReviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The album cover of Roc Marciano\u2019s tenth LP, titled \u201c656\u201d, is of a 1.44 MB floppy disk, one that looks like it\u2019s seen some things. In my day, these disks were our USB flash drives, holding only less than a one-hundredth of what current digital storage technology allows. For Roc Marci, though, a floppy disk remains a tool, one he uses with equally vintage production equipment. This is what\u2019s given him a consistent and revolutionizing sound since his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rapreviews.com\/2013\/11\/roc-marciano-marcberg\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2010 debut<\/a>. At his emceeing core, Roc Marciano is essentially a coke rhymer: His style has a penchant for brand fashion, cinematic narratives, expensive tastes, drug dealing, pimping, all with a braggadocious delivery. He delivers no hooks, but clever rhyme schemes if listened to closely. Roc provides neither social nor political commentary, but bars, nonetheless with quotable gems. His production? Usually self-produced sampled loops often with no drums. Thematically, \u201c656\u201d is no different than most Roc Marci albums as it\u2019s the same ol\u2019 crime story, but he keeps things interesting because he finds ways to elevate it every time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c656\u201d contains twelve tracks and fellow New York underground rhymesayer Errol Holden is the sole guest rapper. \u201cTrick Bag\u201d gets the ball rolling, having the backdrop of a looped jazz-funk sample evoking a low-key crime thriller. \u201cChildish Games\u201d is a keyboard sample looped and chopped as Roc raps vividly about lavish living with references to films like The Godfather (1972) and Indecent Proposal (1993) before giving a one-minute coda with a production shift to a more ominous keyboard melody. \u201cHate Is Love\u201d has vintage soul to the beat and Roc lampshades his own self-awareness on how he\u2019s perceived as a rapper when he rhymes, \u201cMight have to crack the old rich cracker \/ caviar on a Ritz cracker \/ I\u2019m not an actor, but I\u2019m in character.\u201d The simplicity of the production on the single \u201cYves St. Moron\u201d stands in contrast to Roc\u2019s intricate internal rhyme scheme: \u201cThe Pullman pull in bullion \/ never been on bullshit \/ Bullpen from pimp stick to pulpit \/ Pulled a thick Pitbull bitch out a wolves\u2019 den\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRain Dance\u201d marks the first of Errol Holden\u2019s two appearances on \u201c656\u201d. The vocals in the sample (\u201cI don\u2019t know who to blame\u201d) sometimes overlap the raps, particularly in Roc\u2019s verse, and Errol\u2019s verse fades out with an echoing sound. \u201cVanity\u201d is comprised of a looped sample and is a lyrical exhibition of Roc Marci\u2019s microphone narcissism with a \u201cwho\u2019s who?\u201d of fashion designers referenced. \u201cTracey Morgan Vomit\u201d comes with an obligatory and hilarious Tracy Morgan sample at the end from one of his stand-ups, which is appropriate as Roc hilariously spits \u201cLil Mama is sitting by us hot and bothered \/ Lauryn Hill was singing Doo Wop \/ I let off the oo-wop \/ Fucked up the whole concert like Lil Mama.\u201d The second single, \u201cPrince &amp; Apollonia\u201d, is upscale from its pimp narrative to its French vocal samples to the all-strings-and-no-drums production:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrapeze\u201d features Errol Holden, but the production is too repetitive to be interesting. However, Holden\u2019s verse goes beyond Roc\u2019s own. While Roc has literal LOL boasts like \u201cIf we rating th\u0435 pen, if I ain\u2019t top 10, the list was creat\u0435d by atheists\u201d, Holden\u2019s verse is longer and contains more of a story. Once more, his verse has an echoing coda. Roc wastes no time on \u201cGood For You\u201d and immediately hits the mic at the track\u2019s very first second while \u201cEasy Bake Oven\u201d has psychedelic soul written all over it, the kind you play when indulging on a drink once you get home from a long day at work. The album closer, \u201cMelo\u201d, is in the same vein, though more upbeat. \u201c656\u201d isn\u2019t perfect, but it\u2019s another feather in Roc Marciano\u2019s catalogue. At this point, Roc Marci has composed, written, and starred in so many New York City crime dramas that Dick Wolf has to stand up and take notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The album cover of Roc Marciano\u2019s tenth LP, titled \u201c656\u201d, is of a 1.44 MB floppy disk, one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-272014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}