In recent years, rappers seem to be obsessed with their haters; success has been directly correlated to the amount of people who oppose you, creating an odd phenomenon. While other musicians create various pleasing sounds and write catchy lyrics to appeal to large swath of listeners who the vocally appreciate, these emcees would rather stunt to the point that they evoke jealousy in some hearts to gain detractors, reveling in the envious stares or angry reprimands. Rome Fortune’s style relies on an innate ability to be more confident than anyone else in the room, which naturally causes friction among those that have to bear the full weight of his ego or arrogance. However, he’s not focused on continually adding more players to his opposition roster, instead he chooses to ignore them on his path to attaining victory in the game.
Fortune’s latest track, “Turn Left”, finds him correcting those that hate, attempting to teach them what they should be doing to get to where he is. It seems he views this topic with equal amounts of apathy and disdain, as if his skeptics are nothing more than afterthoughts, not worthy of his attention; a feeling that bleeds right into his flow, which is cold and emotionless, but with a tinge of annoyance. The brashness often attributed to this rising emcee can be found in the lyrics that are stoically delivered, yet clearly enunciated so everyone can comprehend what he is saying. He isn’t trying to go over anyone’s head or too fast that no one can keep up; instead, he lacks all urgency, as he paints a picture of why he is purely superior and why emulation would do more good than doubting him. “Why would I hate a f**k n****a like you/ I’m grinding and working b***h/ just do what I do/ and that’s just man to man”.
While he is lackadaisically speaking about his critics and what parts of the current state of hip hop he finds fault, Dun Deal’s production contributes lively instrumentation that pairs nicely with Fortune’s deadpan flow. The vocal sample that are the main component of the beat, dynamically move in the background, providing some much need pitch shifts. Deal still incorporates the static quality of Fortune’s voice in the synthesizer work, which are extremely sluggish and rarely move above a certain key. It isn’t a trap song, but it does borrow from their hi-hat style, which is always welcomed.
Overall, this is a pretty cool song that has really shows off what Rome can do behind a microphone. If you are looking for a rapper to go absolutely crazy and scream all over the track, you should probably look elsewhere. Although, if you are looking for some one who is cool, calm, and confident, who makes music you can easily vibe to, Rome Fortune is definitely the emcee for you.