Marcus Ryan is a San Francisco based rapper who has created a mixtape that focuses closely on two subjects that seem near and dear to Marcus’ heart, making money and smoking weed. With his “money over everything” mantra and a penchant for decisively differentiating his indica and sativa experiences, Marcus is able to use his newly released, “Highlife Mixtape” to show his audience what he’s into. He also gets a chance to share a little slice of the grind with his fans, letting them know just how far he’s willing to go and how much he’ll sacrifice to move on up to that deluxe smoke-filled apartment in the sky.
Ryan achieves an interesting creative moment with the “Highlife Mixtape”. On the one hand, he’s creating songs like “Lid Off”. It’s aggressive musically, and the lyrics deal heavily with the concept of getting paid at all costs. Money is the motivation in Marcus’ mind here, and he successfully paints himself as a person who won’t let anyone get in his way on his struggle to get it.
At the same time, he speaks at other parts of the album as an unashamed weed-lover, smoking all types of pot with his associates and interested lady friends. “H.N.I.C” shouts out stoner-rap hero, Wiz Khalifa, in comparison to himself and throws in a classic Mortal Kombat reference just to underscore the stoner landscape he resides in. The way these two sides of his character seamlessly cross paths on “Highlife” make it clear that Marcus Ryan doesn’t see then as independent parts of himself. “No Luv” uses trap motifs to speak in depth on what he sees as the inevitably positive reaction of beautiful women to his money-oriented work ethic. Yet on “Game Givin”, Marcus makes it clear that while he might get high and hang out with superficial people, he refuses to “go broke with them”. It has to be said that this guy likes to have fun, but he doesn’t risk his priorities in doing so, a lesson for us all perhaps.
The beats Marcus Ryan uses are pretty cool. Ryan doesn’t shy away from using industry instrumentals to help him achieve this like his work over the “Feelin It” instrumental. Listed production credits would’ve helped me to throw some praise on what turned out to be some pretty relaxed, head-nod beats that I really enjoyed. In the absence of that, I can say, at least, that things went well on the production side. It’s a decent effort overall, worthy of a listen.
– iLikeZach
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