Marcus Alland is the budding Hip-hop Artist hailing from Queens, New York, who just released his latest single, "Living in a Crisis." It's a single that represents the unique sound of his quickly maturing core, but deeper than that, it's an articulate and deep-punching Contemporary Hip-hop production festooned by a crucial message. With organic affluence for gripping storytelling and an unwavering creative intuition, Marcus takes over this latest hot-blooded single with the most fleeting and uplifting sentiments he can muster-up about living during the multi-faceted crises of our current global affairs.
"Living in a Crisis" begins with a distraught introduction sampling the sounds of an altercation within the war-reflecting streets' of protest we've grown familiar with recently.
With this sentiment, Alland immediately captures the mindset that environment festers within us, utilizing the opening respondents of "Living in a Crisis," feels like a devastating punch. It all works to hone-in on the turbulence he's describing while venting and oscillating back-beats support his steadfast Emcee cadence, like a gear and wheel performance—never losing rhythm.
With droning subs and resounding pad samples corroborating together, the Queens-native formulates a diversified method for diffusing his crucial message: paint a vivid picture and establish a vital testament. Alland does this with a focus centered around state-forces shooting at protesters, minorities, and anyone unlucky enough to cross paths with the power-hungry authorities.
At the center of it all, the hooking top-lines, "everybody's strong, and everybody's united, got us living in a crisis, everybody's mad, and everybody's got the fire," unify like the sound of protesters marching together for their human rights, and establishes Alland's uplifting message of egalitarianism.
"Living in a Crisis" diffuses fleeting advice through a captivating narrative that plunges into reality over steady-smooth stanzas, and the booming Contemporary Hip-hop beat supporting it all from behind.
Hello Marcus and welcome to BuzzMusic. What were some of the emotions you found yourself honing in on to capture the performances on "Living in a Crisis"?
Well, some of the emotions I was honing in on honestly was the anger and disappointment I felt from witnessing everything. From the riots to the people catching COVID-19, businesses going bankrupt, it was just so much to take in.
Can you walk us through what the process behind "Living in a Crisis's" looked like and what it demanded from you, both emotionally and creatively, to complete?
The song definitely needed to be strong and powerful. Something that was going to give people that kind of energy they need to understand that this is wrong and unacceptable for our country. So it demanded my honesty and my emotions to be delivered strongly within the song.
What's something you wanted to illustrate for your audience through the narrative you've established on "Living in a Crisis," and do you feel like this message empowers your identity as an artist?
I wanted to illustrate reality. The reality in our world that some won't understand. I feel like it's our job as creatives to show in our songs what's going on especially from the big picture. And as far as empowering my identity as an artist, I am humbled to be seen as someone empowered but I just want to make sure my part is being done and my purpose is being fulfilled.
If you could give your audience a few words that would act as the Prologue to the experience behind "Living in a Crisis," what would you say and why?
This honestly doesn't need too much of a Prologue because I feel like it's been introduced from the news reports that were being broadcasted. I'm just merely expanding the horizon of the story being told.
What has been keeping you inspired in 2020?
What's been keeping me inspired throughout the year is my drive, my hunger to improve my work ethic, and my excitement for new music being created currently.