This is the thirteenth studio LP from Long Island, New York emcee/producer Roc Marciano. Beginning within the very late 90’s as a member of the Flipmode Squad, he then went solo in 2008 to drop basic albums that will pave the best way for these like Griselda resembling Marcberg & Reloaded. He would start specializing in producing initiatives for different artists like Flee Lord & Bronze Nazareth following Mt. Marci & after all returning to enlist The Alchemist to completely produce The Elephant Man’s Bones & The Skeleton Key couple years other than one another, each of which I gave excellent scores to & the identical goes with The Coldest Profession produced by DJ Premier. 5 months later, he’s persevering with to prelude Criminal Jazz with 656.
“Trick Bag” begins by sampling funk & jazz commanding thou shall not trick irrespective of how thick your pockets wind up turning into whereas “Childish Things” hooks up some naked synthesizers speaking about reaching the finer stuff in life. “Hate is Love” instrumentally takes a extra soulful strategy suggesting those that choose ought to clear their very own yards up previous to “Yves St. Moron” speaking about his greatness not taking place haphazardly.
As for “Prince & Apollonia”, we now have Marc carrying over the drumless vibes recalling a man ready for his lady in his whip blasting the Prince observe “If I Was Your Girlfriend” simply earlier than the soulful “Vanity” continues to color photos of the Mafioso life-style Roc has grow to be renown for. “Rain Dance” that includes Errol Holden groups up over some vibraphones speaking about turning base metals into gold whereas “Tracey Morgan Vomit” explains you don’t need to be a barber to get your wig parted.
“Trapeze” that includes Errol Holden begins the final leg of 656 with a crooning beat speaking about each of them shifting perpetually whereas the chipmunk soul-flavored “Good for You” boasts of him being able to steal your aunt & make her his child mama since he’s been easy like that. “Easy Bake Oven” continues to pattern soul music speaking about being the fashionable day Frank Sinatra & lastly, “Melo” sends all of it off boasting he’s fucked the identical quantity of baddies retired NBA ahead Carmelo Anthony has.
Not solely are we mentioned to be getting Criminal Jazz afterward sooner or later in 2026, nevertheless it was additionally confirmed by Roc Marciano himself that he has one other full-length deliberate for this 12 months known as Mt. Magneto & probably a complete album totally produced by Animoss. And for him to get the brand new 12 months began, 656. Despite Errol’s visitor appearances being merely satisfactory, Marc’s drumlessly jazzy manufacturing matched & the mafioso/gangsta themes over the course of a half hour are robust sufficient to make me wish to preserve it in rotate.
Score: 9/10