RAS BEATS - "Knowledge Of Self" (w. OC & eLzhi) / "Wit No Pressure" (w. Roc Marciano)

A couple of weeks ago I got at least two calls from my people urging me to check out the new Roc Marciano joint produced by a somewhat up and coming producer named Ras Beats. The track in question, "Wit' No Pressure" was classic Marciano, dark, gritty and dirty with a nasty guitar loop and some pounding drums which allowed Roc Marciano to channel his inner pimp and thug to the same extent as on many of my favorite works of his. There's no question Ras Beats and Roc Marciano was a good fit, and though I recognized the name but not from where, I was immediatly hooked for more from this gentleman.

Turns out he's not exactly entirely new to the game, as his sound would already attest to, as he's slowly been making a name for himself as a go-to-producer through works with legends like Sadat X, Masta Ace, Neek The Exotic, and Orlando emcee J-Biz.  Aside from Neek all the aforementioned emcees returns the favor by appearing on Ras' 2016 albumm "Control Your Own".Released on indie label Wordplay the album also sees Ra teaming up wtih Roc Marcy (as mentioned), OC, AG, eLzhi, Rasheed Chappell, Blac-a-stan, Subconscious, Fev and German rapper Kool Sphere. I was hoping for an album with banging beats and insane guests of the caliber of the two first singles, I would be truly flabbergastd at this point. At the same time, I'm not going to judge the book by it's cover (or in this case an LP by its tracklist) so we'll see what happens. Either way it's good news as 2016 has been slow as hell when it comes to Hip Hop ("Timmy Timmy Turner", anyone? "He be wishing for a burner".. "He might even kill everybody walking" - pure Genius, deep stuff).

The B-side to "With No Pressure" features no lesser of a line-up than OC and eLzhi and is called "Knowledge Of Self". To my knowledge this is the first OC and eLzhi collaboration (correct me if I'm wrong) which is kind of strange considering how well their respective smooth voices and intricate rhyme schemes works together. Ras Beats does a great job at creating a smoother, more laid back yet punding which shows that he's very capable of custom making joints. Enough talk, we came here for the music right? Though I never posted the Roc Marciano single before I'm posting this I thought I might as well throw it up as well. The digital maxi single features no less than 9 tracks, including an exclusive remix of "Wit No Pressure". You can buy the single either via Bandcamp or iTunes while you'll get more info and music on Ras via his official website (that includes the tracklist for "Control Your Own". Don't sleep on the heat!