By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Oct 19, 2025

From Cosign To Curation, The Roc Marci Way

Some thoughts on Roc Marciano & Errol Holden. +reviews of Dot Dev (fka Pink Navel), LIFEOFTHOM x Plain Pat

Errol Holden

In an uncharitable moment, one might liken hip-hop to the famous crabs-in-a-bucket scenario, a self-defeating culture of destructive competitiveness and exclusionary politics where beef and even greater adversarial situations imperil ambitious artists' abilities to advance. Still, as dog-eat-motherfucking-dog as rap can get, there's no dearth of apparent cosigns on display.

But what actually constitutes a cosign nowadays? Is it enough to do a 16-bar feature on some rising rapper's track? Is spitting over a certain producer's beat a reciprocal endorsement or merely a rote transaction? A cynical mind processes a plurality of these on-record interactions as the product of backdoor dealings and record label machinations, but plenty of cases demonstrate genuinely true building, fam. Think of Raekwon's auspicious on-stage blessing at a 2017 Griselda showcase in New York City, backed up in subsequent years by his meaningful, spoken-word appearances on members' projects. In turn, the way Westside Gunn backs artists like Boldy James, Estee Nack, and Rome Streetz without locking them into restrictive label deals adds substantial clout to their overall efforts and respectively encourages their wider shine.

On a somewhat smaller, but no less significant scale, we have Roc Marciano. After effectively providing the blueprint for the next decade-and-a-half's worth of independent, lyrical, streetwise hip-hop with 2010's Marcberg, he's amassed a discography worthy of both envy and respect. Yet beyond his collabs with everyone from Kool Keith and DJ Premier to The Alchemist and Ka, his efforts as an executive producer for other, often lesser known artists' projects elevates his status from cosigner to curator.

Over the past ten years, we've seen Marciano parlay his position–and, not infrequently, his instrumental prowess–to push through image-enhancing works by Flee Lord (Delgado, 2021), Therman Munsin (Sabbath, 2018), and Jay Worthy (Nothing Bigger Than The Program, 2023), among others. None of these, however, proved more prescient thus far than his backing of Stove God Cooks, whose Reasonable Drought from 2020 raised the bar for coke rap greatness so high that even Malice and Pusha T had to formally cosign the Pyrex professional on their recent Clipse reunion album.

Assuredly, this is business, not charity. But in contrast with the history of rapacious and vindictive hip-hop impresarios, Marciano appears vastly more interested in raising up these talents rather than keeping them under his bejeweled thumb. It is in this noble spirit that we get Errol Holden's exquisitely titled Mulberry Silk Road. Their complementary pairing here arrives mere months after the release of the onetime Mass Appeal signee's outstanding Supreme Magnetic. Not long thereafter, the New York native served as the opening act for Marciano's 4/20 concert at S.O.B.'s downtown, a suitably smoked-out event where Busta Rhymes, Large Professor, and the aforementioned Alchemist were also in the building.

On some level, Holden shares certain qualities with Roc Marci, both men being deft writers whose designer tastes and strong-armed shrewdness make for some sophisticated street shit. On "visvim vandal," its title already a declaration of class before so much as a single bar is uttered, he recounts acts of watch theft and assertive gunplay like a stick-up kid with a poet's soul. "Rod lavers with the stüssy hoodie" pushes that style further forward, unapologetically describing how the pangs of poverty motivate summertime sprees, retribution campaigns, and sexual conquests.

In scarcely over half an hour, Holden presents a dark vision few of his would-be pot-stirring peers could dare to compete with, making Mulberry Silk Road far ominous and chilling than much of the surrounding Halloween season's performatively spooky fare. Reflecting an eagerness to differentiate himself, his delivery is almost invariably rapid-fire, emptying full clips worth of wordplay into the filthy, menacing instrumental ether of "comanche war paint" and "dip dip diver." Simultaneously larcenous and lascivious, "jerry buss" encapsulates so much of what makes Holden so dangerously alluring–and no doubt what drew Marciano to his cause.

Dot Dev, There Was A Wind, But No Chime

(buy it / stream it)

Quite a bit happened in the two years since Pink Navel's How To Capture Playful dropped–a public split with the Ruby Yacht label, a moniker rebrand as Dot Dev. And while their There Was A Wind, But No Chime pivots in a more overtly personal direction, the fundamental essence of what made the Bostonian's prior works so enjoyable persists nonetheless. Rappers and producers have every artistic right to switch things up; it's how we got 2 Chainz from Titi Boi, after all. Right from the title track that starts off this roughly half-hour effort, that casual eloquence flecked with quirky panache rings out. The uniqueness of their execution here speaks volumes of their creativity, dwelling upon process and prowess on "I Don't Need You To Respect Me" and plunging into terminally online horror for "The Hyperlink That Kills You." The inherent wooziness of the instrumentals amplifies the vulnerability of their vocal performances, singing his stories in melodic trembles on "Interview" and "Places I Rode."

(buy it / stream it)

After hearing his promising 2024 LP Cocotaso with consistently solid producer Stoic, I couldn't help but keep my ears open for more from LIFEOFTHOM. Linking with Plain Pat, whose prior work for Cudi and Ye made him a low key legend in hip-hop, the New York rapper makes their co-headlining set DRIVING BLIND an immediately rewarding listen. An emboldened lyricist with a firm grasp on the mic and fine taste in cannabis, he lays down bars with confident precision on album bookends "Wasted" and "JUMPIN' IN." He has a keen sense for hooks, deployed with deceptive ease on "HITTAS" and "GTFO." Often, his talents recall those of Lord Sko and Wiki, both of whom appear here as guests on local lingo-laden cuts "42ND ST." and "HANDS," respectively.