Baton Rouge, Louisiana emcee Marcel P. Black sits down with Hip Hop Headquarters
Describe the typical Marcel Black fan.
Basing it off my tour dates, my fans very from the older undergrounds heads to college kids. My style is definitely more concept & content heavy, but still has that soulful street edge that work for me even when I play in front of more “hood” crowds. But for the most part, it’s the everyday people who work to provide for their families who support me the most.
What track of yours do you think you should go down in history for and why?
My all-time favorite record I’ve do is “Stare & Whisper.” It’s the perfect statement for who I am as a man, and what it is I stand for. It’s all parts pro-Black, gospel, grown, gangster, and vulnerable. Great production, great singing, probably some of my best ever song writing I’ve ever done.
Baton Rouge is a city with a lot of good people trying to make it through the day. Baton Rouge is also a very segregated city in which lacks the progressiveness that a capital city should. Post-Trump, and the police killings, the racial tension is thick, and it’s hot as a mf outside like 9 months out of the year.
What was the vibe in BR after the Gavin Long incident? How have things played out since then?
Honestly the Gavin Long situation ain’t the event that changed us, it was the Alton Sterling lynching. The only thing the Gavin Long did was fuel the #BlueLivesMatter crowd to be more angry at people of color for asking to not be killed by police. The line is pretty much drawn in the sand and the racists aren’t hiding out anymore, nor are the folk who’s tired of the BS.
Do you feel you have a unique perspective as a ‘conscious’ rapper in the south? How would you describe that perspective?
No. MLK, Huey P., Bobby Seale, H. Rap Brown, Geronimo Pratt, so many others who were Black leaders are from the south. Some of the most brilliant Black men who made permanent marks by speaking truth to action & power are from the Mason Dixon. So my content is nothing new, I just aim to carry on tradition. Now, as an artist, my perspective is different because I really work in these hoods that these rappers glorify with the youth. I see first-hand the effects of the nihilistic and misanthropic mindset our young in the streets have, and the conditions that create these mindsets. I aim to report live from the trap to educate these kids why they are trapped and things they can do to get up out of it.
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