From the first time we were introduced to Liberian-Finnish, hip-hop-soul transcendentalist Jesse Markin through his early 2019 single, Jericho, it was his range that captured our attention. Equally adept with vocals and lyricism, with delivery and flow, Markin is the mark of a modern artist where a lack of definition and an unending swatch of skills drive the course of his music.

 

His debut album is as expected, as an exhibition first and foremost of that range. FOLK is its fitting title, embodying the indefinability and inventiveness that words like folk and indie often attempt to blanket. And along with folk and indie, conscious and experimental would have to also accompany his greater description. 

 

His debut album is almost too wide-ranging, stylistically scattered but successfully tethered akin by Markin’s overarching knack for making a point with his music. A master with his pen, Markin’s music is as meaningful and direct as music is capable of being. So, anyone searching for depth in their music both thematically and aesthetically; for anyone searching for range in their music, driven most fervently by hip-hop, by soul, and by the utmost indefinable, Jesse Markin’s FOLK is an undeniably vast and intriguing debut.