{"id":5157,"date":"2020-02-14T08:55:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T07:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.throwup.it\/?p=5157"},"modified":"2020-04-23T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T14:45:00","slug":"roc-marciano-godfather-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.throwup.it\/en\/music\/art-of-bars-music\/roc-marciano-godfather-underground\/","title":{"rendered":"Roc Marciano, godfather of the underground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Origins<\/h2>\n

Roc Marciano<\/b>, born Rakeem Calief Meyers in 1978, grew up in New York in the Hempstead neighbourhood, specifically in the 100 Terrace Ave Projects. He came up in what citizens of the big apple call Long Island, an area further east than the better known boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. This block has always been one of the poorest and most infamous in the city so inevitably young Rakeem (Roc Marci) found himself caught up in the street life. However Rak, or Rocky as his friends called him, had a special talent for rap music and was encouraged by his older peers to follow the path of a career in music. He took on the stage name Roc Marciano in honor of the undefeated Italo – American boxing champ. Although Long Island isn\u2019t as famous as other New York boroughs for its contribution to the Hip-Hop genre it has birthed some among the most legendary figures in the game, like Rakim and MF Doom for example. Roc Marciano would take inspiration from these cats as he was coming up, but he has revealed that his greatest influence was Kool Keith from the Bronx.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"100

100 Terrace Ave, Hempstead, Long Island ( New York City)<\/p><\/div>\n

His life in Busta Rhymes\u2019 Flipmode Squad<\/h2>\n

Despite his raw talent Roc Marci was not yet able to dedicate himself completely to his musical career without a record label investing a significant budget. He preferred to maintain a foot in the lucrative criminal activities of his neighbourhood. Since the end of the 90\u2019s however, the Hempstead rapper had been in close contact with Busta Rhymes, an MC hailing from nearby Brooklyn, who was already very successful. Busta immediately became (and still is) one of Roc Marciano\u2019s biggest supporters and invited him to be a part of Flipmode Squad, the super-group he had recently formed. He was featured on \u201cThe Heist\u201d, a track off Busta\u2019s 4th studio album \u201cAnarchy\u201d (2000). In this banger Roc Marci trades bars with Raekwon The Chef and Ghostface Killah of the Wu Tang Clan, two well established heavyweights in the game<\/p>\n