Shake sent over rapper Marlon Craft to our group chat this weekend. He showed Meka and I this freestyle called “Survival Of The Fittest.” I immediately felt empathy and related because he had a big New York Knicks flag hanging in his bedroom studio. (Better days are ahead, I hope.) [EDIT: Phil’s gone, thank gawd!]
The raps were good, too, though. He addresses the prototypical Internet commenters who have conflating opinions on everything, particularly what they deem as “right”: “Backward ass cyber thoughts, they don’t even know the half of it/They cry for Ali but demonize Colin Kaepernick.”
Shake also sent along “THE FEELS” — the titular track to an album coming out at a later time. The relatability came back again: “I been watching the Knicks lose games all year, I don’t have time for the fake, my dear.” Stepping away from the freestyle format, the song showed Craft has at least some sort of ability to thematically craft (I really didn’t mean to make this pun) a song.
Craft — a tall, lanky, white teenager – has grabbed the ears of Statik Selektah. He appeared on one of the producer’s Shade 45 shows and came through with — almost robotically — another solid three minutes of bars. There’s no doubt he can rap, so, naturally, we’d like to introduce him as someone to at least keep your eyes on.
Check a couple of his songs and freestlyes, including an “NBA Craftstyle” where he weaves in NBA references over four minutes, below.
