Graphic via Evan Solano
The fact that someone is always watching SORCERER on Letterboxd gives Will Schube faith in humanity.
The only constant in Marco Plusā turbulent childhood was rap music. Heās fairly certain ā call it a vibes-based estimation ā that No Limit was bumping on the speakers when he was being driven home from the hospital as a newborn. He wasnāt introduced to music so much as he was immersed in it, assuming life was always accompanied by a Beats by the Pound or Mannie Fresh beat. āIn Black households, people donāt really have to introduce you to music,ā he explains. āItās just the soundtrack of life.ā
Plus was born in Atlanta and grew up on Weezy and Hot Boys songs. He felt a call to pursue rap as a career and by the tenth grade, he dropped out of high school to chase his dreams. After his mother moved to Florida, Marco stayed with his grandmother in Georgia, trying to figure out how to survive on rap music. In 2015, he dropped a mixtape on SoundCloud, My Friends Understand, before getting kicked out of his grandmaās spot and moving down to Florida to live with his dad. Floundering, he got his GED, though nothing came from the degree but dead-end jobs and hopelessness, a feeling aggravated by being stuck in what he called the āTrump townā of Pensacola, Florida. He was too dejected to work, too broke to leave.
Marco eventually clawed his way back to Atlanta and started to find a groove with his music. The recording output grew prolific as the 2020s hit. The first record he dropped that actually moved the needle for his career was 2021ās Cold Soul. This record marked the first time Marco Plus opened up about his emotions through the hardest years of his life. The project didnāt achieve the big numbers he was hoping for, but the vulnerability brought in a score of new fans and proved to Marco that people wanted to know him in addition to being dazzled by his bars.
This lesson drives his most recent LP, MARCO PLUS Vs. tha Underworld. The record is his strongest and most vulnerable, and it skirts around the idea that being honest in your music has to mean being really, really sad on the mic. On this album, Marco opens about his wins and the knifeās edge of his career in equal measure. Itās a potent blend of desperation and confidence. On the one hand, Marco knows heās making the best music of his life, and on the other? Heās pissed off heās not hugely successful; heās tired of his projects doing smaller numbers than he thinks they deserve. Despite that, he keeps pushing, like a running back bursting through the first layer of defense and making his way to open space.
Second track āparlayā thoroughly fleshes out Marcoā origin story. His flow helixes from the same DNA as Andre 3000, sticky and staccato, and occasionally revving up into double and triple time rhyme schemes. He marries technical precision with an approachability, hiding the seams of his technique just long enough to convince us there wasnāt any stitching involved.
Across the record, Marco prioritizes hope over resignation. Itās a gift he gets to pursue this dream, even when the streams donāt rack up quite like they should or tickets are still available at the door. Rap careers require patience and constant practice, a fact that is almost directly at odds with the real world pressures Plus faces while trying to āmake it.ā
POW caught up with Marco Plus to talk about his latest LP, growing up with a Mannie Fresh soundtrack, keeping his head up as he grows in hip-hop, and more.