Depending on how tapped in of a hip-hop head you are, the following statement is either a fact of life or a revelation: Roc Marciano is one of the most impactful MCs of his generation. Since 2010’s MarcBerg , he’s been a catalyst of a new indie rap scene, dropping albums as braggadocious and flashy as those in the major label orbit, while selling many of them direct-to-consumer from his website.

A horde of the artists highlighted in Rolling Stone ’s column No Filler are indebted to him, as are the hip-hop fans benefiting from the glut of spitters dropping seemingly every week. Those listeners grew up in the golden era of hip-hop, where producers like DJ Premier laced classics for Gangstarr, Nas, Jay-Z, and the rest of hip-hop’s who’s who. One would be hard-pressed to find a le

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