Hell’s Kitchen, New York native Marlon Craft, is calling for the resurrection of New York City Hip-Hop. Previously frustrated with the stagnated state of the city’s music and culture, the 29-year-old emcee is sure that Hip-Hop’s mecca is due for a resurgence following the apocalyptic era we call the year 2020. 

“I’m a little down on New York right now, but the thing is, I get to be down on New York; I earned stripes to be down on New York. It’s like family, like don’t nobody else talk about New York. I can shit on it.” 

“Imma always rep New York, and be New York, and exude New York. I was the guy for some years that would say, ‘We need to take New York back and fight for the soul of New York,’ but it definitely feels different outside.” 

On his latest third studio album, While We’re Here, Marlon Craft reflects on his thoughts and experiences amid global strife, calling this project his “darkest” one yet. 

“It’s my darkest album. A lot of it was made between 2020 and now; everything going on with the pandemic and everything that’s been going on in the world. It just really felt like some handwriting on the wall while we live in these wild times.” 

Throughout the project, Craft battles with the juxtaposition of his catapult into rap stardom and the crumbling world around him. Touching on everything from mental health to family, While We’re Here is Craft in his purest state. 

“It’s been a hard couple of years. The last couple of years, it was basically all from the crib, trying to grow my career and watching my business grow and achieving all of these goals while looking out the window and wondering what it all means if all of this is crashing down around me?” 

Born into a family of artists, his father being a jazz percussionist and his mother an Off-Broadway producer, Craft’s passion for the arts runs deep. On the track “World Champ,” the New York City emcee speaks about his relationship with his parents while questioning how he’ll fulfill his purpose while making them proud. 

“My dad was a jazz percussionist, he traveled the world playing music, and he kind of gave it all up for me,” Craft explains when asked about the standout track. 

“He was traveling a lot, he wanted to be around to raise me and my sister. He made the ultimate sacrifice for me and for it to come full circle, and I’m able to make a living doing music, It’s very fulfilling for us both.” 

On the standout track “Hanz Zimmer,” things come full circle for the Manhattan-based emcee, as his idol and Mobb Deep member, Havoc, handles production on the single. 

Craft first caught wind as an emcee to look after delivering a spirited freestyle over Mobb Deep’s classic 1995 track, “Survival of the Fittest.

“The fit was so crazy because sometimes you get the opportunity to work with someone who is so storied or famous, but you may not have the most personal connection to that person. But working with Havoc was such a full-circle moment.” 

To top things off, Craft recruited his pops to compose a horn arrangement over Havoc’s production, making for one of the emcee’s most personal tracks yet. 

“He just sent me the beat, and I was like ‘I gotta go crazy,” and my dad helped arrange the horns over the track.” 

In the project’s thesis statement, “Cool Grey 11’s,” Craft gives listeners a walk in his shoes as he discusses his ascension in the music industry while living surrounded by the ineluctable grief of a post-pandemic world. 

“On the album, I deal with my own personal growth and ascension as a man and artist in my career, trying to wrestle with the idea of growing up as the world around you is crumbling down. That’s the central idea of the album.” 

With three astounding bodies of work under his belt, Marlon Craft continues to stamp his place as an emcee to look out for. Craft’s third studio album, While We’re Here, is without a doubt an album of the year contender, once again proving that he is indeed next up.