I recently had full fusion surgery on my right wrist in order to alleviate the consequences resulting from late stage Keinbock’s Disease. The procedure requires dealing with a lengthy recovery time and a slow comeback to semi-normal function, but after going through significant pain and strength issues for years (even while typing) the trade has thus far been a very important one. Plus, it’s a move that finally promises a real and lasting solution to a career-hobbling crutch.
Healing is still ongoing, but I’ve finally gotten to the stage where like a cigarette at the end of a long day I can slowly stub out some words again. The effort to do so takes a bit longer than it normally would, but I found too many music-related words swinging through my brain like fruit on the vine to simply be left unused to go rotten.
So let’s get started with New York City bar-spitter Marlon Craft. The 28-year old Hells Kitchen rapper has been a creative madman in a career still going as young as it is strong. Last time we joined Craft he’d locked forces with producer Yusei on the superb Space EP; today we find his vivid verbal vitriol as the headlining star behind new release HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE Vol. 1.
The mixtape is less standard LP format and more a set of fast-shifting vignettes putting Craft’s sheer level of profound verbal bars in even sharper scope, especially with beats and sampling that frame Craft’s worldview rather than overwhelm it. Tracks like “Lost Faith”, “The Loop”, “Bluffin”, “All We Got” and “Halal” hit with the consistent laser-like efficiency of Steph Curry snipershot threes; a perfect fit alongside HOMECOURT’s SLAM Magazine-basketball alluding cover.
No lyrical topic’s safe here either as Craft puts everything from mental health to the oligarchs in his firing squad line. And in this day and age, it’s become more important than ever to find figures like Craft willing to scream the truths behind the indiscretions, illusions and inequalities of our existence. Too often there are too many willing to be silent or have hushed conversations on those dangers and fears in the hope that will be enough to keep the hungry wolves from breaking down their door.
But life isn’t the power of pretend, purple dinosaurs and pretty faeries. It’s a real, raw experience that deserves equal scrutiny whether its kind, cruel, or a percentage in between somewhere. We must never be afraid to use our voices, and lucky for us Marlon Craft made a trade deadline swap for more full-throated defiant shouts here on HOMECOURT.
Be sure to check out Marlon’s new album and plenty of his other material on everything social media, streaming sites, digital downloads, the works!
On The Back Edge Of The Beat 
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