⭐
Irv Gotti died on Wednesday night at the age of 54, and I immediately knew what my next recommendation was going to be about. What I think about most when I think about Irv is how much he believed in himself, which in turn made him believe in others because he was constantly fighting for others. He was the first person --- not Lyor Cohen --- to truly understand what would make DMX the biggest rapper in New York. "If you look in the hood, there are more people like him, than they are like you", he once told Jay-Z, who didn't understand why he was pushing DMX to the masses. When Murder Inc was at its peak, he understood that Ashanti --- a Black woman from Long Island and one of the sexiest women of all-time --- would be an excellent addition to the radio-friendly and sexy sound that Murder Inc had. He built careers when other execs reached into people's pockets.
A man from Queens, who hustled his way to the top of the music industry, Irv took chances on people, and even though 50 Cent's reign took the torch away from Murder Inc, he deserves all of the love, and recognition possible. An album that he was an executive producer on, DMX's It's Dark and Hell Is Hot contains some of the best rap music ever recorded. Here is a song that Irv produced, "Crime Story." It is easy to see what he saw in DMX.
Related Recs
the ORIGINAL unsigned legend. this man spent years dogwalking labels who wanted him and remains maybe the greatest “what if” in the history of music. any fan of the mixtape era must study his entire catalog (lovingly and extensively preserved by his family and friends) but specifically THIS TAPE. there has never been a rapper like him before, or since, bridging the 90s obsession with lavish luxury into the 2000s braggadocious era and creating the GORGEOUS GANGSTA.
this man roomed with lupe fiasco and got on kanye beats in 2002, knew lil wayne was going to be the greatest in 2007, and bolstered some of the greatest deep cuts in the Dipset catalogue. his music sounds like two years in the future - always.
rest in peace STACK BUNDLES.
Jan 24, 2024
Upon realizing that the wind was bound to slap me in the face last night when I left home to buy groceries, I tightened my hooded sweatshirt, put on my big puffer coat, and pressed play on the music of Roc Marciano. Yes, it is the season of winter, where your hands tingle by way of the low temperature. This also means that it is Roc Marciano's season of drug talk, Black nationalism, mafia references, and expensive clothes and dinners. Marciano, or "Roc Marci" for those in the know, is a Long Island (Hempstead) rapper who functions as a specialist for New York hip-hop fans. He is an expert in the lush-sounding, lyrical coke-talk that has permeated in New York for my entire lifetime.
However, it would be a mistake to lump Marci with the rest of the old-soul rappers that are nostalgic for Prodigy. He's much more disruptive than that. First off, he spent decades being underground with Busta Rhymes's collective Flipmode Squad before breaking through without compromising any of his original ideas. Here's the difference between Roc Marci and the traditional boom bap: he is the bridge between generations. He has the flow of Kool G Rap, the ability to be cold and cool at the same time, the grit of Prodigy, but he also has the no-drum and laconic production of Cloud rap geniuses like Lil B and current rappers like Xaviersobased. This is not an annoying kid who talks your ear off about old school hip-hop; this is a sincerely cutting-edge rapper that was able to create something new and brilliant from an already-established style. (The rapper Ka, who died in October, was a frequent collaborator of Roc Marci's. Check him out too).
There's nothing like listening to Roc Marciano in the winter time. His voice is grotesquely seductive, as if he is intimidating you and whispering at you at the same time. See "Wheat 40's", where he flows over a Blaxploitation beat, and starts the song with "I have no home, I'm a rolling stone/Life's one long road, God lighten my load/On the low I might need lipo, white sold underneath the light pole/I believe police might know." Do you hear that? It is the sound of a God MC, taking what I heard growing up, and putting his own self-destructive spin on it. He has more songs that match that vibe, pure id while maintaining a veneer of style and glamour. He's a hero. So much rappers -- even rappers I adore like Conway the Machine -- took his style, and then added their spin, but it was never as good and intricate as his work. Roc Marciano is rap music. He's a trip to Brownsville while wearing a mink coat; he's a trip to the heavyweight match at Madison Square Garden in a polo jacket; he's a Five Percenter who could have been a romantic interest on Golden Girls. (Maybe that's why I connect with his music so much. That's what my vibe is, or at least the vibe I want to convey at all times).
Roc Marci is cool, in an era rappers where rappers are losing their cool by either being insular, emo kids (Nettspend is a star but the music is brain-dead right now, sorry not sorry), or they're weirdly collaborating with Trump and the right wing for more fame and clout. Start with 2010's Marcberg and 2012's Reloaded --- for my money Reloaded is one of the five best rap albums of the 2010's --- and then check out his new album, The Skeleton Key, which comes out this Friday (it is produced by The Alchemist).
ROC MARCI, I LOVE YOU!
Dec 11, 2024
So you’re telling me that the legendary Run-DMC turntablist, role model and man who actually recorded a ‘say no to drugs’ spot was also leading a double life for years as a drugs middleman killed by his childhood friend and godson for cutting them out of a deal? Whoa. Sounds like an episode of The Wire. Reality > fiction, it really IS tricky.
Feb 21, 2024
Top Recs from @jayson
📲
I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
Jan 14, 2025
🎥
There's something quite startling about Martin Scorsese's 1980's period compared to the rest of his decades as one of America's greatest filmmakers. In the 80's, he was weird, strange, and making weirdly manic films that feel more New York than even some of his movies about the mob. They're movies about characters who aren't glamarous people that they want to be, but rather, are losers who can't seem to correctly fucntion in normal society. They're non-violent sociopaths. I saw The King of Comedy at Metrograph recently, and it's exhilarating, hilarious, manic, and scary. With Jerry Lewis, Bobby De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, Scorsese was able to create a world where incels who are bad at comedy are wishing for fame. Sound familiar?
This is a great movie. In 1983, it was a box office flop. But in 2025, it is magical in how it's telling the future. A future of scam artists who don't want to work to get there, and don't want to sit in their mediocrity: they want to steal to get their fifteen seconds. Go watch this masterpiece.
Jan 28, 2025
It's a perfect movie. It's almost too perfect. The fashion, the look on Cate's face when Theresa (Rooney Mara) is walking to her at the end, the line reading of "ask me things, please"; the fact that men are the joke throughout the movie.
It makes me wonder about representation and the limits of it because of how womanly and queer this movie is, despite the fact that it never feels like a movie made for women. It's just a great movie.
Feb 13, 2025