Roc Marciano’s RR2: The Bitter Dose Is Out Now, But You Can’t Stream It
Last year, Roc Mariciano, the veteran New York rapper and producer, released a truly great album called Rosebudd’s Revenge. Roc Marci is an expert and clever and intricately worded shit-talk, and his sound — a muffled and zoned-out take on classic New York boom-bap — has proven vastly influential on a whole lot of this decade’s underground rap. Rosebudd’s Revenge ended up as one of our favorite albums of 2017. And Roc Marci has just come out with a follow-up to that album. You’re probably not going to hear it, though.
Roc Marci’s new album RR2: The Bitter Dose is out today, and Roc Marci clearly intends for it to be the sequel to Rosebudd’s Revenge. But right now, Roc Marci is keeping the new album off of streaming services, and he’s not selling it at retail anywhere. Instead, the only way to hear the album right now is to buy the digital download directly from Roc Marci at his website. And he’s charging a steep $30 for it.
Roc Marci produced most of the 14-track album himself, and Action Bronson shows up on that song. He hasn’t shared any of its tracks yet. It’s probably worth the $30! And $30 is way less than the New Jersey underground rapper Mach-Hommy tends to charge for his own download-only releases. (Mach-Hommy regularly charges hundreds for Bandcamp downloads.) I have to imagine that RR2: The Bitter Dose will eventually make its way to the streaming services; his website merely claims that it’s download-only “until (and if) Roc makes it available in other formats.” Until then, if you want to take the plunge, you can buy RR2: The Bitter Dose here.