In what still looks very much like a plot hatched by the international record store trade as the holidays approach, the traditional end-of-year tops are dropping earlier and earlier. And because you are never as well served as by yourself, it is generally the English shop Rough Trade which gets the ball rolling at the end of November, as if the last month of the year had just as much use. than an IPCC report on Donald Trump’s desk.
However, recent history reminds us how much this month considered as the backyard of Mariah Carey et Michael Bublé can accommodate some of the most notable albums of the year: Beyoncé in 2013, 2014 Forest Hill Drive in 2014, Awaken My Love in 2016 or Bitume Caviar last year. And while all the ducks who count have already recorded the triumphs of Charli XCX or MJ Lendermantwo of the surest values of rap from the 2000s are back to give a follow-up to The Elephant Man’s Boneand shake up some certainties.
To my left, The Alchemista producer whose genius for sampling is matched only by his longevity in this damn rap game – it should be remembered that a young Alan Maman, then aged 13, discovered the joys of the SP-12 with DJ Muggsthen tube maker for Cypress Hill ? And to my right Roc Marcianothe MC and producer from Long Island who single-handedly opened the breach of a “new boom bap” in direct contact with the gutter, and into which dozens have plunged since, sometimes with more success commercial as the threat AND – without Roc Marci, no Westside Gunnno Mach-Hommy and no Freddie Gibbs.
While Roc Marciano’s aura has never weakened, that of The Alchemist has only grown in power in recent years, becoming quite simply blinding today. The list of rappers who dream that The Alchemist will offer them a turnkey album must probably be longer than the list of pots that Diddy drags around, but the Californian has too much sense of priorities to stoop to this kind of maneuver . So he proceeds as he has always done: by feeding the friends and MCs he believes in, taking care to keep his best productions for a few happy few with whom the merger is accomplished. This was the case at one time for Action Bronson or Conwaybut today we feel that the alchemy between Roc Marci and ALC is too strong not to let the most crafted texts, the most vicious punchlines and the darkest jokes of the former come to rest on the most accomplished productions of the second – this is also what probably explains the absence of featurings on The Skeleton Key.
Short, rickety album (with the possible exception of certified banger “Chopsticks”) and which assumes its radicality, The Skeleton Key is a new quiet demonstration of strength from a duo who doesn’t think of their career as a ride on Space Mountain but rather as a long ride in a black Phantom. Having become guardians of the temple in spite of themselves, The Alchemist and Roc Marciano are also there to cement the myth through a record which, like all the others bearing their signature, is not intended to make its way into any list of the most great albums of the year or decade – moreover, quibbling over the superiority of The Skeleton Key compared to The Elephant Man’s Bone, Rosebudd’s Revenge or any record produced entirely by The Alchemist is pure banter. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to suspect them of writing History without appearing to touch it too much. And there, the mission is actually already accomplished.
