Markit

Fax 4 member Markit drops his solo debut with Mark My Words, a smooth ode to concept songs and lyrical wordplay. Keeping it both real and real made-up, Markit mixes serious rap songs like "Carry On” with witty punch line tracks like "Got Y’All Thinkin Now.” His concept track positing himself as a rap superhero ("Supermarkit”) is almost required by his name, even if it isn’t the most inspired idea, although he also steps outside of cliché concepts like rapping numbers or the alphabet, instead incorporating the primary colours into three different verses for the imaginatively titled "Primary Colours.” The mid-’90s-inspired, head-nodding boom bap of Mark My Words is supplied primarily by Jonnybisk, with a handful of beats contributed by Jorun Bombay, Metropolis Votary, Weapon X, the Beatsmith and Bix. Sure, some of the songs blend together but Votary’s "Dreams + Bones” intro and Johnnybisk’s "Into Markit Interlude” stand out as two of the most interesting and outstanding productions. While they are instrumentals, it would have been nice for Markit to rap over something as inspired as them. Still, another strong release from the Fax 4 camp.