04-07-06 Marcel Performs Live With New Band Electric Relaxation
Onajava Coffee and Soul Cafe Was Filled To The Rim With A CNY Hot Crowd.
By Espreenet News Service
 

01.26.06 Seth Marcel featured in Syracuse New Times
Hip-Hop Hooray: Throbbing beats and thoughtful lyrics highlight Seth Marcel's new CD The Road Less Traveled

On his new album The Road Less Traveled, Seth Marcel states, "Born and raised in Syracuse, but I attended a different S.U.: Street University." Such gritty lyrics make Marcel one of the most accomplished hip-hop artists representing the 3-1-5. While he has worked with national artists including Jadakiss and Obie Trice, for Marcel's latest release he herded in the local talent and kept the home city heard.

Marcel's dedication to storytelling recalls hip-hop's heyday when Grandmaster Flash was laying it down. "Butterfly Effect," for example, offers the karmic tale of two worlds colliding with disastrous results. Marcel keeps the modern bravado intact on other tracks, but the context doesn't cancel out his creativity. Taking the Bob Dole approach, Marcel explicitly flaunts his strengths in "3rd Person": "He's got no equal, no superiors... He the shit even rhyming in third person."

In an atypical move Marcel previewed The Road Less Traveled on January 15, 2006 at  Onajava Caf�. "Sometimes when you see a performance," Marcel says, "people are moved by the music and they don't really get a chance to digest what you're talking about until they take the CD home and listen to it."

The coffeehouse's intimate setting allowed Marcel to introduce each song, explain the process behind the record and even deliver some shout-outs to the CD's contributors, including his longtime friend Michael "Jus Mic" Gaines, afternoon deejay for WWHT-FM 107.9 (Hot 107.9). "Being from Syracuse, something we've all learned is Syracuse is the home of hate," Gaines said. "Because I'm from Syracuse, I'm not supposed to support this man, but I do."

Judging from his liner notes, Marcel loves the 'Cuse right back. The CD's roster of local talent, represented by a number of interchanging producers, provides a fresh approach to each song. The Tune Raiders (Darshell "Shellz" Bell and Joe "Jigz" Whitaker) bring a wistful new-school sound that embraces backup vocals, strings and synth in addition to smooth rhythms. The Professionals (Davaugh Floyd and Travis Renfroe) pump up the tempo and pep with buoyant beats. And Marcel's cousin, Eddie James Dowdell, adds some club flavor with a heavy bottom end and attention to open spaces with a sparse technique.

The album's most appealing cut, "Cry Freedom," features local flutist Stephen Wise and spoken-word poet Julius Edwards. Blocky piano chords set up the harmonic base, while Wise adds a high-end, reserved solo line to fill in the gaps, letting loose at the end of the track. Edwards' strong presence as the visionary and the hook is enhanced by a vocal processor that makes his rhetoric sound like a speech recorded on ancient equipment. Marcel tops off the track with intelligent lyrics about the past and current struggles of the black community.

Being a producer himself, Marcel refused to settle for anything less than top-shelf beatmakers. Marcel initially rejected some music from the Tune Raiders, but that didn't deter Bell, who came right back with new tracks; the Raiders' "Jewlz" and "Recollection" eventually made the cut. According to Bell, the hard work paid off: "I never heard anybody spit on our track like that in my whole life. I think that could be a breakthrough for us and take us to the top. I just want to let it be known that I've worked with this guy before, and that dream came true."

That dream almost fizzled out before it got started: Marcel was taking a break from the rap game, then found himself writing away in a notebook during his downtime. He also had to overcome a series of hurdles that led him to later remark, "I must have said something on this CD that the universe doesn't want out." Among the many problems that surfaced: Marcel lost five songs when his computer crashed, the first studio version had to be redone because a compressor was left on during the mix, the album inserts were cut two inches too short and the disc manufacturer misspelled Marcel's name. Just hours before the Onajava show, Marcel and his wife Theresa were still stuffing CDs and artwork into cases.

Yet the listening party paid off for Marcel, who moved 40 copies of his CD that night. "I wanted to strictly deal with locals because when you do a CD independently, you want the music to sell because it's good music," he says. "You don't want the music to sell because it's got someone else's name on it." The Road Less Traveled is now available at http://www.sethmarcel.com and http://www.yrbook.com/soundshop/