About the Artist
Released on January 2, 2026, via Darkstarz Records, The Root of All Evil unites Bronx rapper Caper with producer Chrome Rockwell for a focused, uncompromising hip-hop project. Across 22 tracks, the album explores power, greed, and internal conflict, pairing Caper’s sharp, introspective lyricism with Chrome Rockwell’s cinematic, tension-filled boom-bap. Heavy drums and layered loops drive every track, keeping the sound precise, urgent, and cohesive. Together, they craft a record that hits hard, moves fast, and stays deliberate, commanding attention without wasting a single beat.
Caper brings decades of experience, tracing his roots to the early 1990s under the moniker DJ Hurricane and later as part of Brothers from the Moon. He also runs Darkstarz Records, providing a platform for underground artists and independent hip-hop projects. Meanwhile, Chrome Rockwell anchors the collaboration with heavy drums, textured sampling, and deliberate pacing, threading urgency throughout the album.
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The Album
Consequently, The Root of All Evil stands as a purpose-driven project that values substance over show. It keeps cohesion over restraint. Tracks like “Money Ain’t Love,” “Ubiquitous Assimilation,” “Streets of Ashes,” “Poets of Society,” “Echoes of Change,” “Mirrors Don’t Lie,” and “All I” drive the album’s narrative. Meanwhile, collaborations such as “Digital Control” (feat. Dread Mighty & Gabriel The Messenger), “Shadows in the Clouds” (feat. Portarok), and “Not Complete” (feat. Wuji) expand its sonic palette without ever losing focus.
Money Ain’t Love opens the album with stripped-back precision, its sleek rhythm sliding like smoke along the skin. Caper reflects on loyalty and the cost of ambition: “Selling hours of our lives just to die gettin’ paid…they market insecurity, call it ambition, teach hunger for the dream.” The beat doesn’t soar; it holds you low and tense, like walking a quiet city street at dawn. Meanwhile, Escape the Fallacies drifts bleary and oppressive, each note echoing the weight of manipulation: “Taxes like shackles…but the strings pull deep…every dollar you hold is a piece of my spine.” The track whispers that breaking free from imposed narratives is harder than it seems.
Digital Control (feat. Dread Mighty and Gabriel The Messenger) turns cinematic. Piano notes hover like fog over the boom-bap foundation, as social media and technology pull at reality’s seams. “You become a puppet in the stream,” the lyrics imply, making the listener feel the quiet dread of surrender. In contrast, Ubiquitous Assimilation moves faster, rhythmic and urgent, capturing the pressure to conform and the subtle erasure of self. The tension is immediate, relentless, yet precise, pushing the listener forward with clarity.
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Tracks like Streets of Ashes portray survival in cinematic strokes, while Slow Ride softens the tempo. The latter encourages endurance through gentle soul-infused grooves: “Let the lost be found.” Its chorus swirls behind the vocals, carrying a sense of persistence even in quiet resistance. Then, All I turns inward, tracking personal sacrifices for a higher purpose. Its looping background repeats “All I” like a heartbeat. Painful, raw and gut-wrenching.
Poets of Society hits with unyielding force. The heavy bass carries no pause: “I sketch pain in my rhyme book, blueprint of survival.” Every beat snaps attention back to the immediacy of struggle. Meanwhile, Shadows in the Clouds (feat. Portarok) infuses nostalgia with moody cinematic layers. Lines like, “I grew up in the shadows where the clouds would hover…gonna take you back to promised land with me,” evoke a journey from confinement to hope, balancing the weight of past struggles with the promise of escape. Lastly, Not Complete (feat. Wuji) closes the album, beginning with soothing vocals before the rap slices through: “You’re not complete, we got to take this shit to where it’s got to be,” leaving a lingering sense of unresolved drive.
Finally, the album treats every moment as confrontation, immersing listeners in sound and lyricism that interrogates control, accountability, and truth in modern life. It fuses grit, reflection, and cinematic precision, with each lyric, beat, and texture carrying weight. Together, they construct a narrative that feels alive, urgent, and deliberate, pulling you fully into the tension and intensity of the world it depicts. Now that you’ve glimpsed the edge, dive into The Root of All Evil—experience it, wrestle with it, and don’t let a single moment slip past.
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Disclaimer: This release was brought to you by a promotional campaign by the artist, PR, or management label.
Figuring out my path while actively plotting ten others. Serious about my dreams with somewhat chaotic ambition. Will do anything for cats.
