The “uncomfortable” rapper who inspired Roc Marciano’s style
Roc Marciano’s rapping style is extremely intricate, and it has brought him many admirers. But he, too, has his idols, and there’s one rapper above all who helped Roc figure out his own approach to the craft.
Roc tends to deal with mafioso themes in his songs, but the way he does that is striking. His rhyming and wordplay can be really complex and impressive at their best, while his beats can feel extremely stripped back. His approach has led him to being termed the Godfather of the Underground.
Many of the rappers that Roc looked up to while he was developing his style were similarly adept at wordplay. He’s previously cited MF Doom and Rakim as inspirations, which can frankly be heard within his music, but, arguably more than anyone else, it’s Kool Keith who left his mark most on the approach of Roc Marciano.
Keith’s lyrics can be, to put it mildly, challenging to decipher. He often deals in the surreal and the abstract, and actually getting a handle on what he’s talking about can be a tricky business. It’s not for nothing that he has gained a reputation as one of hip-hop’s real eccentrics.
Roc is a big Kool Keith fan, which spoke about during a 2018 conversation with Passion of the Weiss. “Yeah, yeah, I always thought that Kool Keith was pushing the feeling of being in an uncomfortable state and I liked that,” he said.
When pressed to elaborate on what he meant by an “uncomfortable state,” Roc replied, “Not doing the same thing over and over. If you keep doing the same thing, if you keep picking the same beat over and over that dates, a lot of people are like that beat’s hard — that’s hard, that’s hard, well that attitude dates.”
The fact that Keith is always challenging his listeners is something that Roc admires. It helps things to stay fresh, even if it can be deeply weird to experience. “I would like people to hear songs and be like, ‘That’s kind of strange, what’s that?’” Roc said. “That’s what I mean by being uncomfortable.”
On the sparse beats that he often raps over in his songs, Roc also explained his rationale. Citing his love of “space” in a beat, he offered insight into one of the core features of his music.
“For me as an MC I enjoy the space,” he said. “Sometimes the drums, you know, the program takes over the groove and doesn’t allow me the same space. A track with no drums gives me the space to do more.”