Marco Polo, DJ Linx, Shylow, Theo Bark. Please email theobark@gmail.com for any beat inquiries.
Influences
Everyone from: Patrice Rushen, Stevie Wonder, DJ Premier (Undisputed greatest of all time!), The Beatles, J. Dilla (R.I.P.), EPMD, M.O.P., Boot Camp Clik, Heltah Skeltah, Black Moon, Pete Rock, Hall & Oates, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson (Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad), The U.N., Prince Paul, De La Soul, DJ Scratch, DJ Mark the 45 King, Erik Sermon, Wu-Tang, Showbiz, Lord Finesse, Diamond D., Large Professor, The Bomb Squad, Ced Gee, Ultramagnetic, Rich Harrison, Havoc, Da Beatminerz, Hi-Tek, Nottz, Q-Tip, Ju Ju, Marley Marl, The Rza...
Sounds Like
Marco Polo has worked with: Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, O.C., Boot Camp Click, Heltah Skeltah, Buckshot, Sadat X, Ed O.G., Large Professor, Roscoe P. Coldchain, Kardinal Offishall, Grand Daddy I.U., Skoob of Das Efx, Pumpkinhead, Roc Marciano, Torae, Skyzoo, Copywrite, Low Budget, Jo Jo Pellegrino, Special Teamz, Big Noyd, EMC, Wordsworth, Stricklin, J*Davey, Supastition, Surreal, Jean Grae, D.V. Alias Khryst. Block McCloud, Mr. Met, Bad Seed, D-Stroy, Critically Acclaimed, Supernatural, Shylow, Saga, Breakdown, Bekay, RA the Rugged Man, 9th Uno, Arch Rival, Rasco, Butta Verses...
When it comes to beats and rhymes, Canadian producer Marco Polo and Brooklyn MC Torae don’t play, just check the résumé. On his 2007 critically acclaimed album Port Authority, Polo recruited a who’s who of MC’s like Kool G Rap and Kardinal Offishall to ride over his hard-hitting, boom-bap instrumentals. Torae, on the other hand, has certified his rep as one of the game’s illest lyricists in a similar fashion with remarkable wordplay on his highly touted 2008 street album Daily Conversation. So, in the spirit of great hip-hop duos, the producer and the MC signed with Duck Down Records (home of Buckshot, 9th Wonder, Black Moon, B-Real of Cypress Hill, KRS-ONE, Sean Price, Heltah Skeltah, DJ Revolution, Smif N Wessun, Ruste Juxx, Boot Camp Clik and Kidz in the Hall) in 2009 to release their collaborative album Double Barrel.
“He’s bringing the hardest production that he can bring, I’m bringing the hardest rhymes I can bring; together its like a double barrel blast,” says Torae of the album’s persistent theme. The two first hooked up when Marco tapped the MC to guest on his Mick Boogie-helmed mixtape The New Port Authority in 2007. In turn, Marco went on to produce “Casualty” on Tor’s Daily Conversation. “I think we just had a connection in the studio,” says Polo, “We wanted to make an album that we wanted to hear with banging beats and aggressive rhymes.”
Sonically Double Barell pays homage to New York’s mid-‘90’s rap scene, when artists like Gangstarr and Wu-Tang Clan reigned supreme. The album’s first single “Party Crashers” is a definite standout, harkening back to that era with its chest thumping percussion and rock solid rhymes. So rather then try to fit in with hip-hop’s pop set, Marco and Torae chose the unconventional route. “I think the sound of the album is not the most popular or trendy, but we’re going to crash the party,” says Tor, “ We’re coming in with this sound and we’re coming in doing what we want to do.”
Songs like the dramatic “But Wait” and the free associative “Word Play” display Tor’s forward thinking conceptuality, while the rock-infused “Danger” stands as one of Marco’s finest productions to date. Overall the album is chock-full of the street-influenced rap that fans have come to expect from the two hip-hop upstarts.
More than superior rhymes and dynamic beats, Double Barrel is a testament to the ever-important creative relationship between rapper and beat maker. “You want to have a good sense of chemistry with a person and Marco and I have good chemistry,” says Torae.
“You’re going to have a consistency in the sound,” says Marco of the benefits of the one MC, one producer dynamic.
Throughout the album pays homage to the genre of rap that influenced the duo and even features critically acclaimed heavyweights like M.O.P., Masta Ace and Sean Price to help balance out the track list. Still while honoring the past, Marco and Torae’s main goal is ultimately to further their art. “We’re not trying to take it back,” says Marco we just wanted to make an album that knocks.”
With the boom bap in tow, the pair aim to prove that behind all the flashy videos and high priced toys, hip-hop always boils down to two things: beats and rhymes. Double Barrel more than accomplishes the goal, and Torae sums up the collaboration perfectly when he spits, “He makes violent beats, I’m from the violent streets/That Double Barrel sound, that’s where violence meets.”
Beats are life. Marco “Polo” Bruno, by way of Toronto and now making his home in Brooklyn, lives by this mantra. In a few short years the T. Dot native has gone from green producer with a new MPC 2000XL to a highly sought after purveyor of boom-bap, laying down tracks for the likes of Masta Ace, Boot Camp Clik and Sadat X. Now the 27 year-old production wunderkind is set to release his own debut album, Port Authority on Soulspazm/Rawkus.
A Hip-Hop head since copping the first A Tribe Called Quest album, in 2003 Marco Polo was fresh out of audio engineering school and despite sending his resume to over 20 recording studios in NYC, was without a single job prospect in site. Unfazed, he made the move to New York, staying with a friend in Queens before moving to his current Brooklyn confines. One day while meeting with recent acquaintance Ayatollah at The Cutting Room Studio, Marco finagled his way into an internship at the studio. From then on it was grunt work-fetching coffee, cleaning up, answering phones-and in a few months he landed a gig as an Assistant Engineer/Manager (coincidentally, the same job held previously by one Just Blaze). It would prove to be perfect locale for Polo to shop his beats. “I would have my beats blasting out of the office so that when clients came through they would hear my stuff,” he recalls.
After having a hand in engineering records from the likes of Fat Joe, Talib Kweli and even R&B crooner Carl Thomas, a Juice crew member put the battery in Polo’s career after sliding him some tracks. “Masta Ace came through a Beatnuts session and I gave him a CD and he hit me back a couple of days later for the “Do It Man” beat that I did on “A Long Hot Summer.”
Ace wasn’t Polo’s first placement. He had already been working with respected lyrical crew Brooklyn Academy which includes Jean Grae, Block McCloud and Pumpkinhead while he had showcased his work at a Beat Society show in NYC, which led to his relationship with Soulspazm.
But the “Do It Man” track placed Polo on plenty more radars. Since the song was a late addition to A Long Hot Summer, in lieu of Ace’s depleted budget the two decided on a trade. In turn, Ace recorded “Nostalgia” which ultimately became the first track recorded for Polo’s Port Authority project. Says Polo, “That’s what set off the whole idea for me to do a whole album. My ode to Soul Survivor, that type of album.”
Polo left The Cutting Room a couple of years ago, saying, “That was the best thing that ever happened to me cause it forced me to go into producer role full time.” Since then, Polo’s beats have sonically benefited folks like the Boot Camp Clik, Supernatural and Sadat X. Polo’s creative sampling, knocking drums and throwback grooves are fresh, never dated; while the warmth of sounds he is able to achieve has also led to mixing work for rap legends. “I learned enough [at The Cutting Room] to take it into my crib and I get a really good sound. So when O.C. or G. Rap were hearing the sound I was getting and it was sounding better than the studios they were paying for so I ended up following into that too.”
Upcoming benefactors of his skills at flipping samples include Large Professor, Heltah Skeltah and Ed O.G amongst others. But for now, the focus is his Port Authority project. Boasting lyrical contributions from a who’s who of today’s most talented lyricists including O.C., Buckshot, Kardinal Offishall and Kool G Rap, all over his own production, the album will sure to please fans of progressive hip-hop old and new.
“Not [to] sound clich.., but I’m just trying to bring up that type of hip-hop that I grew up listening to that inspired me to get into it,” says Polo of his debut, before adding, “Hip-Hop is definitely not dead, you just gotta make quality music and you gotta work extra hard to get it out there. I gotta just let the music speaks for itself. I’m trying to show anyone from anywhere, if you work hard enough you can make it happen, and stay true to it and make some real shit.”
That live stream show was nice, you gotta do it again. Keep me posted. Props from Philly. If you get a min, peep some beats. I put in work on the 2000XL, 60 and ASR-10.
