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Solemn Brigham is 1/2 of the group Marlowe. His music has been featured on Gatorade's G is for Greatness ad campaign, 7-Eleven's Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo, Spring Breakers) directed low rider bike campaign, and NBA2K22. South Sinner Street is his debut solo album coming Sept 24th.

About the Album:
It is no secret that things are getting worse. By virtually any metric––economic or medical, or ones more abstract and spiritual––American society is in decay. The feeling permeates daily life in innumerable ways, giving the present a gnawing, ambient dread.

Solemn Brigham is not content to leave this at a low hum. On his dazzling new album, South Sinner Street, Solemn examines this decay through the prism of his hometown: Albemarle, North Carolina, where the blocks he grew up on are crumbling like everything else. “What was once a vibrant area now survives as a reminder that the only thing eternal is change,” Solemn says when describing the project’s genesis. “Trash and debris flood the streets, relics of the many lives lived––each piece with a story to tell.” South Sinner Street not only traces the degradation of the world around us, but documents the way communities can come together to stave off that slow death, lifting its members up in the process.

Solemn is uniquely equipped to animate the relics of a once-thriving neighborhood with the specificity they deserve. The rapper, whose work with his fellow North Carolinian, L’Orange, as the duo Marlowe has been critically acclaimed, is one of the most vocally acrobatic working today, able to contort himself into a dizzying array of different flows and inflections, accomplishing alone the sort of musical variety that sprawling collectives try and fail to achieve. Take “Couple Towns,” where Solemn moves from a seesaw pocket into a flow that cascades over the ends of bars; contrast this with the bonus track “Relax,” where each bar sounds as if it’s the final thought spilling out of his mind at the end of an impassioned phrase. The end of “Vice North” even recalls the technically stunning runs of One Be Lo, the Michigan rapper who in the 2000s became one of the genre’s chief chroniclers of a similar country-wide disintegration.

But this is not merely a showcase for verbal acrobatics. South Sinner Street is deeply personal, juxtaposing personal growth with the decay that surrounds it. “This is no rags to riches story,” Solemn warns. Of course––it’s more complicated than that. When, on “Vantablack,” of a toddler cradled in his mother’s arms while that mother nurses a cigarette, he is not asking the listener to imagine a tragic end or a harrowing origin story. The point is that we are all, perpetually, the child and the mother: doing our best to cope, even against our better judgment; persevering despite the circumstances that surround us.

And yet South Sinner Street is buoyed by a sense of playfulness that lights up even the pitch-black corners of Albemarle. “Nothing Left” succeeds in turning end-of-your-rope sorry into something like an in joke. When, on “Vice North,” Solemn raps about putting his hands together in prayer only to find “the line still busy,” his voice bakes something amusing in the complaint––maybe the sense that a young man in a small city is irked at God the way he might be at a flaky friend from the gym. And then, speaking of gyms, comes the laugh-out-loud moment on “Dirty Whip,” when Solemn concedes that he didn’t make the basketball team “‘cause I’m me-first.’”

Across its 14 songs, South Sinner Street argues for Solemn Brigham as one of the most exciting artists in underground hip-hop, a technical virtuoso who also happens to be one of the genre’s most surprising, most deeply personal songwriters. The album evokes the feeling of climbing onto a house’s roof to survey the nearly-burning city around you, with all the peril that entails––but also all the possibility.

Solemn Brigham is 1/2 of the group Marlowe. His music has been featured on Gatorade's G is for Greatness ad campaign, 7-Eleven's Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo, Spring Breakers) directed low rider bike campaign, and NBA2K22. South Sinner Street is his debut solo album coming Sept 24th.

About the Album:
It is no secret that things are getting worse. By virtually any metric––economic or medical, or ones more abstract and spiritual––American society is in decay. The feeling permeates daily life in innumerable ways, giving the present a gnawing, ambient dread.

Solemn Brigham is not content to leave this at a low hum. On his dazzling new album, South Sinner Street, Solemn examines this decay through the prism of his hometown: Albemarle, North Carolina, where the blocks he grew up on are crumbling like everything else. “What was once a vibrant area now survives as a reminder that the only thing eternal is change,” Solemn says when describing the project’s genesis. “Trash and debris flood the streets, relics of the many lives lived––each piece with a story to tell.” South Sinner Street not only traces the degradation of the world around us, but documents the way communities can come together to stave off that slow death, lifting its members up in the process.

Solemn is uniquely equipped to animate the relics of a once-thriving neighborhood with the specificity they deserve. The rapper, whose work with his fellow North Carolinian, L’Orange, as the duo Marlowe has been critically acclaimed, is one of the most vocally acrobatic working today, able to contort himself into a dizzying array of different flows and inflections, accomplishing alone the sort of musical variety that sprawling collectives try and fail to achieve. Take “Couple Towns,” where Solemn moves from a seesaw pocket into a flow that cascades over the ends of bars; contrast this with the bonus track “Relax,” where each bar sounds as if it’s the final thought spilling out of his mind at the end of an impassioned phrase. The end of “Vice North” even recalls the technically stunning runs of One Be Lo, the Michigan rapper who in the 2000s became one of the genre’s chief chroniclers of a similar country-wide disintegration.

But this is not merely a showcase for verbal acrobatics. South Sinner Street is deeply personal, juxtaposing personal growth with the decay that surrounds it. “This is no rags to riches story,” Solemn warns. Of course––it’s more complicated than that. When, on “Vantablack,” of a toddler cradled in his mother’s arms while that mother nurses a cigarette, he is not asking the listener to imagine a tragic end or a harrowing origin story. The point is that we are all, perpetually, the child and the mother: doing our best to cope, even against our better judgment; persevering despite the circumstances that surround us.

And yet South Sinner Street is buoyed by a sense of playfulness that lights up even the pitch-black corners of Albemarle. “Nothing Left” succeeds in turning end-of-your-rope sorry into something like an in joke. When, on “Vice North,” Solemn raps about putting his hands together in prayer only to find “the line still busy,” his voice bakes something amusing in the complaint––maybe the sense that a young man in a small city is irked at God the way he might be at a flaky friend from the gym. And then, speaking of gyms, comes the laugh-out-loud moment on “Dirty Whip,” when Solemn concedes that he didn’t make the basketball team “‘cause I’m me-first.’”

Across its 14 songs, South Sinner Street argues for Solemn Brigham as one of the most exciting artists in underground hip-hop, a technical virtuoso who also happens to be one of the genre’s most surprising, most deeply personal songwriters. The album evokes the feeling of climbing onto a house’s roof to survey the nearly-burning city around you, with all the peril that entails––but also all the possibility.

Solemn Brigham is 1/2 of the group Marlowe. His music has been featured on Gatorade's G is for Greatness ad campaign, 7-Eleven's Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo, Spring Breakers) directed low rider bike campaign, and NBA2K22. South Sinner Street is his debut solo album coming Sept 24th.

About the Album:
It is no secret that things are getting worse. By virtually any metric––economic or medical, or ones more abstract and spiritual––American society is in decay. The feeling permeates daily life in innumerable ways, giving the present a gnawing, ambient dread.

Solemn Brigham is not content to leave this at a low hum. On his dazzling new album, South Sinner Street, Solemn examines this decay through the prism of his hometown: Albemarle, North Carolina, where the blocks he grew up on are crumbling like everything else. “What was once a vibrant area now survives as a reminder that the only thing eternal is change,” Solemn says when describing the project’s genesis. “Trash and debris flood the streets, relics of the many lives lived––each piece with a story to tell.” South Sinner Street not only traces the degradation of the world around us, but documents the way communities can come together to stave off that slow death, lifting its members up in the process.

Solemn is uniquely equipped to animate the relics of a once-thriving neighborhood with the specificity they deserve. The rapper, whose work with his fellow North Carolinian, L’Orange, as the duo Marlowe has been critically acclaimed, is one of the most vocally acrobatic working today, able to contort himself into a dizzying array of different flows and inflections, accomplishing alone the sort of musical variety that sprawling collectives try and fail to achieve. Take “Couple Towns,” where Solemn moves from a seesaw pocket into a flow that cascades over the ends of bars; contrast this with the bonus track “Relax,” where each bar sounds as if it’s the final thought spilling out of his mind at the end of an impassioned phrase. The end of “Vice North” even recalls the technically stunning runs of One Be Lo, the Michigan rapper who in the 2000s became one of the genre’s chief chroniclers of a similar country-wide disintegration.

But this is not merely a showcase for verbal acrobatics. South Sinner Street is deeply personal, juxtaposing personal growth with the decay that surrounds it. “This is no rags to riches story,” Solemn warns. Of course––it’s more complicated than that. When, on “Vantablack,” of a toddler cradled in his mother’s arms while that mother nurses a cigarette, he is not asking the listener to imagine a tragic end or a harrowing origin story. The point is that we are all, perpetually, the child and the mother: doing our best to cope, even against our better judgment; persevering despite the circumstances that surround us.

And yet South Sinner Street is buoyed by a sense of playfulness that lights up even the pitch-black corners of Albemarle. “Nothing Left” succeeds in turning end-of-your-rope sorry into something like an in joke. When, on “Vice North,” Solemn raps about putting his hands together in prayer only to find “the line still busy,” his voice bakes something amusing in the complaint––maybe the sense that a young man in a small city is irked at God the way he might be at a flaky friend from the gym. And then, speaking of gyms, comes the laugh-out-loud moment on “Dirty Whip,” when Solemn concedes that he didn’t make the basketball team “‘cause I’m me-first.’”

Across its 14 songs, South Sinner Street argues for Solemn Brigham as one of the most exciting artists in underground hip-hop, a technical virtuoso who also happens to be one of the genre’s most surprising, most deeply personal songwriters. The album evokes the feeling of climbing onto a house’s roof to survey the nearly-burning city around you, with all the peril that entails––but also all the possibility.

North Carolina-based hip-hop producer L'Orange and rapper Solemn Brigham are Marlowe. Quick-fire vocals and dusty breakbeats. With dazzling cinematic mise en scene, L’Orange crafts a world that sounds like an old-time medicine show dropped into 90s Brooklyn.

Limited to 300 copies.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2020 release. Marlowe is a collaborative alt-rap project from North Carolina-based hip-hop producer L'Orange and rapper Solemn Brigham. Their unique blend of quick-fire vocals and dusty breakbeats is most well-known on tracks such as "Lost Arts" and "Tales From The East." The project came together in 2018 with the intent of marrying Brigham's lyrics concerning social commentary, police brutality, and poverty with L'Orange's thudding beats and crackling vinyl samples to achieve a new, refreshing take on hip-hop in modern times. Marlowe 2 seeks to continue that legacy.

North Carolina-based hip-hop producer L'Orange and rapper Solemn Brigham are Marlowe. Quick-fire vocals and dusty breakbeats. With dazzling cinematic mise en scene, L’Orange crafts a world that sounds like an old-time medicine show dropped into 90s Brooklyn.

L'Orange & Solemn Brigham are Marlowe

"An artist afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.”

Over a half-century later, the axiom remains true for hyper-kinetic hip-hop innovators, North Carolina’s L’Orange and Solemn Brigham—the hard-boiled duo behind the fun house fever dream, Marlowe.

Released on Mello Music Group, Marlowe is a triumph of ambition, a rap bricolage blending prohibition and civil rights-era samples with Asian psychedelic rock flourishes. Solemn Brigham controls the microphone like a general who can’t help but be right. His flow is a blitzkrieg. It’s an Olympian sprint, gliding over snares and kick-drums like hurdles. He’s a showman seeking revolution—resolute in his desire to strike equilibrium between awareness and entertainment.

Solemn applies the fictional protagonist’s search for the truth towards different ends. His crimes are existential yet specific, rooted in the injustices of the past and the attempt to redress them in the present. He’s an artist perennially seeking something to fight for, channeling energy from the music of the civic rights era, stealing timeless rhythms and inflection from classic funk and soul. An old soul with original ideas, tapping into the eternal reservoir of Sam Cooke to Ice Cube, Otis Redding to Chuck D, Curtis Mayfield to KRS-One.

Over the course of 17 tracks, Solemn hurls sharp darts at counterfeits trying to crack his religion, the onslaught of time, and prevaricating rappers—all while paying homage to those who paved the road for him. He bounces off the beats like a trampoline placed in a speakeasy, doubling up on the vocals, burrowing into dense cryptic tangles of slang and then stretching them out with melodic ease.

With dazzling cinematic mise en scene, L’Orange crafts a world that sounds like an old-time medicine show dropped into 90s Brooklyn, with Solemn summoning the holy spirit of Big L. Cymbals crash, drums pound, fuzzy guitars ride out, a bronze rain of horns cascade. This is gorgeous celestial dust, high-powered fuel with every syllable meticulously ordained. Marlowe cracked the case, but how they did it can only become clear under deeper investigation.

Limited editon of 500 copies on black vinyl.

“Drivin’ Far Away” is not a way to avoid reality, but a process of going further to find your own paths, especially in harder times. A trip you don’t necessarily need to take alone. B Dom, Brous One and Greco Murillo found the route together in the search of a unique sound, crossing borders and finding travelers with different perspectives along the way.
With “Drivin’ Far Away” the three Chilean artists put together their first EP, a six-song selection with influences that ranges from Jazz, Funk, and Soul to Hip-Hop with a Lo-Fi aesthetic. It all began with Brous One looking for a team of musicians to create the perfect soundtrack to let you feel and release your emotions. A very intimate project with deep sensations and at times sexy feelings.

To round it all up, every single track was remixed by some of the best European producers at the moment. FloFilz, Psalm Trees, Philanthrope & Leavv, Retrogott, Spaze Windu, and Misha gave their own touch and perspective to make a good project even greater.