Roc Marciano The Specialist

To me, Roc Marciano is still riding the Reloaded wave. The MC that never left the 90s has rightfully come into the spotlight for his understated, colorful deadpan lyricism. Instead of forcing a mainstream crossover, Roc seems intent to further blaze his own trail. His role as Vice President with Man Bites Dog Records will result, among other endeavors, in Marci Beacoup, a third solo album this December.

Before we get the Long Island auteur's third collection, he's blessing the world at large with The Pimpire Strikes Back, a mixtape that will preface the album. Taking to Instagram to release the tracklist of the upcoming tape, we can look forward to Roc rocking over Madlib (!!!) as well as usual suspects like Alchemist and Arch Druids, and Roc himself of course.

The first leak from the Pimpire tape is "The Specialist," a collab with Pete Rock. The pair's first time on a song together since Roc was part of Pete's UN group back in the early 2000s, the two sound nice. Pete plays to Roc's strengths with a short-but-sweet loop that our featured MC proceeds to dismantle and disintegrate. From riding dirty in clean coupes to stomping people out with blonde boots, Roc does gutter like no one else.