Over the past decade, hardcore Hip Hop acts have seen a sharp decline in mass popularity. The presence of groups like the Onyx [click to read] and M.O.P. on music television networks and radio stations has slowly dwindled, seemingly driven underground to be worshiped by only a select group of truly devoted Hip Hop heads. To the average listener, it would appear the world has forgotten the Timbs and Champion hoodie-wearing emcees of the mid-’90s. But Torae [click to read] and Marco Polo still remember.

Coney Island emcee Torae and Toronto-born producer Marco Polo have teamed up to release Double Barrel, dropping June 2 on Duck Down Records. Yet the album wasn’t initially planned as to be a full LP. After first working together on Marco’s Newport Authority mixtape with Mick Boogie [click to read], the two artists connected over their shared passion for the music

I don’t think there was a defining moment where we were like ‘Yo, let’s do an album,’ Marco noted. “I think it was more like when we started working on tracks for my Newport Authority mixtape, we just had a good chemistry, and we just kept building and recording more songs, and hanging out more, going on tours and became cool. It developed into a project. We just kept building. It just kind of happened organically.

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Torae added, “It was definitely more of just wanting to do music with one another. After I did the ‘Good God’ joint, [which] was just an interlude for the Newport Authority mixtape, Marco gave me three or four beats to choose from, so me, being the opportunist that I am, I decided to write to two beats. So I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve got this interlude joint, but I want to do another full joint on this mixtape as well,’ and that turned into ‘Causality,’ and then we kicked it, like Marco said. After those two records, there was a big gap, we went on tour, went to Canada, hung out for a few weeks. Once we got back to Brooklyn, we were like, ‘Yo, let’s get up and make some more music.’ So we did a couple more records, and then after like the third or fourth joint, it was like ‘Let’s just make an album,’ and those first initial records didn’t even make the album because we were just kind of getting in the zone and recording with one another and building on the chemistry and the foundation that we had. Once we really sat down and decided we’ve got to do an album is when we got serious into making the project that you hear, but never was it ever preconceived, like,  ‘We’ve got to sit down, we’ve got to do X-Y-Z.’ Everything just kind of happened organically, as generic as that may sound.

The duo stressed the importance of their collaborative efforts on the album. Unlike many contemporary albums, Double Barrel is dependent upon the relationship between the producer and the emcee.

I’m always a fan of overseeing a project head-to-toe and being involved with it,” said Marco. “I just feel like those records have more legs. They last longer and they just make a bit more sense than a bunch of producers on one album. Those can work, but [it’s] just a preference thing. Looking back at the classics, a lot of the records I still listen to now Hip Hop wise had an in-house production staff or one producer, like if you go back to the early Wu-Tang Clan records, the Gang Starr [records], the EPMD [records]…there was a cohesive sound.

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He later added, “There was input on every angle. Torae’s not going to rap on a beat he doesn’t [like]. I might love it [and] think it fits the project, but he’s got to be on the same page with me. Nothing was forced on this record. Everything was done because we both agreed it would work and it would sound good, and when it comes time to making everything final, to sequencing and to doing drops and how Tor’s rhyming, we stayed involved in every process just to make sure we were both feeling it. We both bring something to the table, we both have strong opinions, and everybody listened to everybody and put their egos at the door and really just knocked out an album we can tell you we’re proud of, top to bottom.

Torae agreed with Marco’s view of the project. “It was 100% a collaborative effort. That’s why it’s not a Torae album produced by Marco Polo, or Marco Polo album with Torae. It’s Marco Polo and Torae because that’s how the project was created. I wrote a few records that Marco was like, ‘Yo, those are dope, but I feel like this,’ or sometimes, I may come to the table with a concept and Marco would say ‘That’s ill, but let’s try it like this.’ We both had to give and take a little bit to make the best possible project, but we both focused in on it. Certain things, I was like ‘Yeah, that’s fly, let’s try this,’ and we just put it together. But everything, top to bottom, everything you hear on the album was definitely 100% input by the both of us, and I think you feel it when you hear the music. It doesn’t feel like anything was forced.

Beyond the cooperative elements of the album, Double Barrel’s sound is the musical equivalent of the album’s title. It’s a raucous, hard-hitting barrage of boom-bap tracks reminiscent of the “Golden era” of Hip Hop. It’s something of a musical anomaly in a scene dominated by Auto-Tune and tight jeans. Yet to Torae and Marco, the album’s tone was common sense.

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Let’s be honest, we’re not trying to bring [that mid-’90s era] back, we’re not trying to resurrect Hip Hop and that stuff that people say,Torae explained. “At the end of the day, Marco is a producer because he listened to Hip Hop and he fell in love with it and he fell in love with the certain sound from the certain era. I emcee not because I want to make bazillions of dollars and drive a Bentley and live in a mansion. I emcee because I grew up listening to Hip Hp and fucking fell in love with it. Everything about it personified everything that I was. [Marco and I] both come from that era and [because] we fell in love with that era, the music that we make is going to be inspired by that shit that we like, and that’s definitely from the Bacdafucup and the [Enter The] 36 Chambers and all those albums that are the ‘Golden era,’ those ’90s albums…Why wouldn’t I want to evoke that same emotion, that same feeling that those records gave me when I make records? It only makes sense. I make the type of music that I was inspired by in order for me to even create music.

He continued, “As far as the delivery of the album, I feel like it’s more a reaction to what’s going on in the music right now. I think the perception of music and Hip Hop, as a whole is real soft. It’s almost taboo to be masculine in Hip Hop. Everything is colorful, and skinny jeans, and scarves; just a bunch of shit that’s a little effeminate in my opinion. This was a direct reaction to that. This is not soft. I’m not whispering…this is hardcore, grown man, New York City Hip Hop, and this is a direct contrast to everything else that’s being broadcasted on the mainstream. This is for people in the streets that don’t know how they’re going to get their next meal. This is for dudes hustling when it’s cold outside and they’ve got nothing on but a hoodie and a skully and they’re trying to get that money. This is for them.

Reported by Sean Ryon.