Track Review ⊙ Daily Ops Home
The U.N. :: "Snow"Download (2007)
Roc Marciano, former Flip Mode Squad member and current bright bulb in Long Island rap group The U.N., here drops a coke rap that splits the difference between early Wu-Tang and the Clipse, employing the lo-fi loop-and-drum charm of the former and embracing the chill sneer of the latter. But where both Wu and Clipse exhibit such glee in their work as to depict dealing as tragicomic, Marciano's flurry of a string sample and dripping icicle chimes feel all tragic, a harbinger of winter that's pretty foreboding at the close of August. Roc's flow powders and freezes the mic while his imagery is all too effective in creating a city scene where cocaine flakes whirl in the air, mound up on cars, and bury bums alive; he rides the beat easy, only starting to rip it at the conclusion of his final verse, which the beat accommodates by throwing in the hissing hat succession it uses on the repeat of the hook. It's a minor triumph of understated rap and production synergy for Marciano; "Snow," in its own small and quiet way, is a highly evocative equivocation of the drug game to an unstoppable force of nature.
Chet Betz :: 26 August 2007 |
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