Mark 4ord – “Sun Baths In North Korea” (Album Review)
If you’ve been following our page,you’ve most likely heard about Mark 4ord and Da Money Tree Records. Over the past few years he has been very consistent with music, visuals and… underground bodies of work that have become Sub underground hidden classics. This time around he has recruited the help of some top notch MC’s for a short spurt through dark alleys of Oxnard, California with the oddly titled “Sun Baths In North Korea“
The album starts off with an excerpt from Tpain saying that if artists make too much money they are considered the devil. Before you even get a laugh however, the intro transitions perfectly into the first song; which you might have seen on our website already, “Oaths” feat. Trizz. This dark gritty track is laced over a Bodybag Ben beat and has cuts but Cutmaster DJ Manipulator. As Oaths end, a gunshot transitions us to the next song; where we are plunged into a deeper and darker vibe Prod. by none other than 4ord himself. This track features Bodybag Ben on the rapping side of things, and upon first listen; we were thoroughly impressed. The song is aptly titled “Perkins Rd” which we guess holds some relevance to where both Ben and 4ord reside.
The dark vibes continue as we get into the track entitled “Directors Cut” ft. X. This track is produced by Aesthetic and has a hard hitting bassline followed by keys with some raw drums. Mark and X both snap on this track and we are definitely hoping for a visual soon, as this is one of our favorite tracks. Next on this list would be east to west which is an ode to IFC yipes being from New York. This track is composed by DJ Manipulator with a nice melodic beat and bassline that allows both parties to speak their mind and get to work with the bars! This track closes out with a couple Mohammad Ali quotes and sets the moon for the next track.
Sunbath Interlude is a short track produced again by DJ manipulator, but before we even get into it, it drops into the 4ord910 (from Lordmobb, not Mark 4or) Prod. track Glide freestyle. This is a dope track of mark just cruising across the beat and snapping us out of boom bap for a sec to spit some bars on a subby mellow vibe. This is definetly a EP but even still some EPs have alot of skips. I feel this does not and flows solidly from end to end. We give it 8/10 even though it’s a great listen we’re left wanting more.
