Marlon Craft

New York-born Marlon Craft spent years refining his craft in private before unveiling his intellectually dense, word-focused brand of rap. Drawn to beats that blended gritty golden-era East Coast hip-hop textures with jazz-inflected live playing, he channeled his socially aware themes and pointed cultural critiques into the 2019 studio debut Funhouse Mirror as well as the 2021 successor How We Intended.

Raised in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen by a father who performed jazz, Craft divided his adolescence between basketball courts and an intense immersion in hip-hop recordings. While attending college he started producing tracks himself, ultimately self-releasing the debut mixtape Pieces in 2015 as graduation approached. The following year brought the EP so, what are you doing? along with the standalone tracks “Workin’” and “Reason.” His approach continued to evolve and his delivery gained precision across these projects, reaching a new level of refinement on the 2017 mixtape The Tunnel’s End. Signing with the Sony-affiliated imprint Same Plate Entertainment in 2019, he issued the politically charged full-length Funhouse Mirror, whose verses examined racism, classism, and economic inequality while including guest spots from Ricky Motion, Dizzy Wright, and additional contributors. The follow-up effort How We Intended reached listeners in early 2021, fronted by the singles “Hoodie Weather” and “Get Off My Yard.”