Artist: Marti
Album: Train853
Articulation: Courtney Cosby
Train853 is a brilliant title for this project because Marti is giving us a vision of his life and how he copes while abusing drugs. Watson 853 is a brand of lortabs and the train symbolizes his emotional journey threw life. He let's you inside his head and you're able to understand the way he thinks. The concept is very dope and unique! Marti's flow stands out because of his groggy, monotone voice and he raps as if he's telling a story or talking directly to you. A lot of his songs sound like poetry or spoken word and you can visualize a lot of the things he says.
Marti's subject matter and delivery has an Outkast or Goodie Mob type of vibe to it. A few of the songs remind me of Kendrick Lamar on "Good Kid, Maad City. I love the production on the entire project. The songs all have a jazzy, slow vibe with some R&B samples. Whenever I hear those type of beats I expect to hear dope lyrics and that's exactly what Marti brings. Most of the songs don't have choruses so he's strictly spitting bars. There are no turn up, hype, club songs at all and that's absolutely fine with me. This is 1 of those bodies of work where you can put on some headphones and just vibe out. I can honestly say I like all 10 tracks and could let it play more than once.
"Heavy Heart" is 1 of my favorite songs and was stuck in my head after the 1st time I heard it. "Auntie on the search for meds, ironically I need some too, these my personals, but for her, guess I could spare a few" is just a small sample of the type of the things Marti talks about. I was really impressed by this next verse because it shows exactly what Marti was thinking as this particular incident occurred, "other day I gotta call, my granny said my moms legs went out at the bingo hall, all I think about if a jerk nigga had seen her fall, and knew she had some cash cause she won big on a coverall."
"Selfish" is another favorite where Marti's telling a story about how bums and fiends are always standing outside the store begging as he explains the reasons he shouldn't be selfish. "I understand young blood I'm on my 10th second chance, you gotta couple dollars, could you help me if you can, I know, you're only here to put has in your whip, to make you feel better, what about a drink and some chips, well that's the least I can do, I stare in your eyes and I see me inside of you, everything's sweet but life could hit me hard too," that whole concept and the way Marti flipped it was super creative.
Marti's unique voice and flow, combined with his subject matter and the energy of his production makes him stand out as a rapper. I haven't heard anyone with his sound or vibe in a long time so I was excited to hear something this good from somebody from the younger generation. I'm a new fan and will be looking forward to more music from Marti in the future.
Dope Tho Rating: 9
Key Dope:
Heavy Heart
Selfish
Dope Tho Rating System
1-3 = Nope Tho
4-6 = Solid
7-9 = Heat
10 = Rated Dope Tho