Roc Marciano & Alchemist - The Elephant Man’s Bones (Discussion Thread)

[Piff Perkins]

For sure. As a Roc fan I've endured some pretty bad mixing from Rosebudd's Revenge up through Mt Marci. And I usually get annoyed and roll my eyes at people that regularly complain about mixing. I mean old Wu albums are some of my favorites and some of those have some low quality mixing. I think a lot of that stuff can add to the appeal. But with Roc is was up and down and inconsistent...and also his brand was that of such a fine art lyricist/fine wine kind of rapper that it made no sense for the mixes not to be really clean.

This is the cleanest Roc album I've heard since Reloaded. I don't feel like listening to them all to "make sure" because it's not that big of a deal, but my intuition is that's the case.

I fee like Wu Tang got away with it in part because the vocals were always good enough and each rapper had a pretty district, deep voice that cut through those samples. Whereas with Roc (and Ka) not only are the vocals low due to the voice/tone/style, the beat and even vocal samples (movie dialogue for instance) often registers higher unless it's mixed decent. So you get this mix where you have to strain to hear things, or worse yet you listen in a car and it's just a mess. That first RR album pissed me off so much due to it. First time I heard it I was in a hotel, stuck with bad headphones. So I just assumed it was due to that. But when I got home it really wasn't better.

I listened to the album in the whip yesterday and it sounded good. Similar to the Boldy album, and other recent Alch ones. Also revisited Mt Marci and Behold, both of which sound good enough mix wise. IMO the RR/RR2 era was the worst Roc period due to this issue.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Conway's album will be on my top ten list this year, barring a flurry of dope new albums in the coming months. I def agree there's more to him than the super nikka shyt, but man...that's an artist that truly needs an exec producer to pull more stuff out of him. I truly believe there's a great album in him that someone can unlock. Via studio conversations more than beats.

With Benny, yea...I can't do it anymore. The exact same flows and punchline setups, the nonstop plug talk. And it's not even done in a way that is descriptive or interesting. I love how Boldy James will explain the sights, sounds, and smells of that life. Mixed with the dense, Raekwon-esque slang and you get shyt that just sounds interesting+dope. With Benny I'm constantly left thinking "how are you such a Hov stan and haven't figured out how to be less overt with the plug talk yet?"

Just wanted to say on the bolded that's a good analogy. Rae and Boldy have bars I've never understood the exact code and slang involved, and honestly that's kind of a big part of their appeal with me. Especially as a kid listening to Rae it seemed like he was speaking another language sometimes. A lot of times with Rae and Boldy I get the idea but I couldn't say what the exact slang is.

@REAL6 BTW the Conway song rapping from his son's perspective isn't out yet. Not sure the name of it but it's produced by Justice League and probably on his next album.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Just to make it clear, everyone this drop won't be at www.alcrecords.com but www.rocmarci.com

 

[choc_cardigan]

If you want me to nitpick the roc album I wish roc and boldy had a different beat. I wish stove and ka was on it. And there isn't 1 beat switch song. Even though the blending in-between makes up for that.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

If you want me to nitpick the roc album I wish roc and boldy had a different beat. I wish stove and ka was on it. And there isn't 1 beat switch song. Even though the blending in-between makes up for that.

The Boldy feature is one of my favorite beats on there. I might've said this already but even thought Trillion Cut is high energy and choppy and Fake Flowers is smoother and more menacing, they low key it kinda remind me of each other with the kick drums being there but using a hit hat sound instead of a snare drum on the 2s and 4s.

EDIT: @choc_cardigan I think Roc and Stove aren't cool anymore and that's why Stove isn't on here.

 

[areohbee824]

think I'm gonna get the Deluxe and regular in black

 

[T.H.E. Goat]

If you replace Think Big with Macaroni this would’ve been a perfect album…I ain’t rocking with them annoying ass seagulls

 

[yourgod]

Been listening to this back to back since Friday, it def lived up to my expectations. Reminds me of continuance in that you got two goats that have been working with each other for a lil over a decade and you get to hear the matured versions of both of their styles on a body of work. The amount of quotables on here are wild - "Just me and my uzi we lookin like a couple spooning" - "I stepped on the grams the only thing that was missing was the hammer pants" - "You ain't a boss till you take a loss that's a loss leader".

Im still digesting the album but Im def putting this up there in the top 5 of his catalogue, i gotta let this one sit with for a min. Rubber hand grip / quantum leap / liquid coke / trillion cut / stigmata and JJ Flash been getting the most spins from me. Rubber hand grip might be his hardest/best intro song, that shyt sounds like the intro to a christopher nolan movie. Deja vu sounds good in context of the album, bubble bath and zig zag zig are good but it feels like he threw them in there for the conservative rap heads. Macaroni and Momma Love are vintage AL and dont even sound like bonus joints.

 

[George's Dilemma]

Does it have drums?

 

[Figaro]

If you replace Think Big with Macaroni this would’ve been a perfect album…I ain’t rocking with them annoying ass seagulls

Ain't going to lie....I'm fukking with that beat

 

[T.H.E. Goat]

Ain't going to lie....I'm fukking with that beat

I really tried because I like that sample but I felt like I was listening to a nikka recording at the Santa Monica Pier

 

[TheDarceKnight]

If you replace Think Big with Macaroni this would’ve been a perfect album…I ain’t rocking with them annoying ass seagulls

The seagulls definitely get a little bit loud for me by the end

 

[ReWiNd]

think I'm gonna get the Deluxe and regular in black

so are the bonus tracks going to be on the physical copies?

 

[areohbee824]

so are the bonus tracks going to be on the physical copies?

On the Deluxe Edition yes

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Does it have drums?

Most of the joints have drums. A few tracks have drums that are a part of the sample, and there's a breakbeat or two on here, but there are plenty of joints with programmed drums.

50% of the official album (14 tracks) has very pronounced and loud drums. And another 25% has lighter sounding drums embedded in the samples. Then there's another 25% that are more typical no drums at all style (Deja Vu, the title track, and Think Big come to mind).

It's about the same amount of drums as Bo Jackson, but a little less drums than Price of Tea in China.