Markese Money Rolle (b. April 1, 1991), better known by his stage name SpaceGhostPurrp, is a rapper and producer from Miami, Florida. He is considered to be one of the most influential artists in the modern hip-hop scene.

Born in Miami, Carol City area, music was a big part of his life when he grew up there, as his mother was a rapper who once did a song with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Purrp grew up around Southern culture, mostly being influenced by Miami bass, Memphis rap, and Houston rap.

He wasn’t just interested in hip-hop, though, as he was also into goth, skating, and other communities and music genres such as dubstep, R&B, and metal, citing Meshuggah as one of his favorite metal bands.

In a 2017 interview with HAM ON EVERYTHING, Purrp talked about how he first started making music during his childhood:

I started rapping when I was 5 […]. We grew up watching my big brother Kadafi rap and […] he had like a whole squad, they used to be called 2-11 Street and they just […] rep that shit and we used to just watch them niggas spit and we used to be up under them […] freestyling and shit […] we was like 7 years old and […] we used to be freestyling […]. Me and my brother Dough2x used to have like three shoe boxes full of raps and […] we had the best bars in elementary school […]. When I was 13, my cousin […] he was making beats and I was like “What the fuck is this?” […], that’s when Fruity Loops had just came out and niggas was still using the pad and shit […] and one day, he had all his niggas in a room freestyling and he was like “You wanna make a beat?” […] I’m like “Alright, cool” […] so then I got on and that shit was so hard […] that was 2001.

In 2008, Purrp created the now-disbanded hip-hop collective RVIDXR KLVN, alongside DoughDough, Kadafi, and his late friend Jitt, who got shot and killed in Carol City two years after creating the collective. This event was subsequently responsible for Purrp taking his music career more seriously and starting to follow his artistic vision.

The early 2010’s were an interesting period of time for SpaceGhostPurrp, as that was the era in which he was in his prime. On September 11th, 2010, he released his debut mixtape Nasa The Mixtape, an experimental project combining 1980’s samples and production inspired by Memphis Rap and the booming Atlanta Trap scene.

On May 1, 2011, Purrp released a project that would later be considered the blueprint of the underground and would influence the future wave of artists that would come after, BLVCKLVND RVDIX 66.6 (1991). This project would change Purrp’s career forever, and it would cement him as an underground pioneer.

After the release of BLVCKLVND RVDIX 66.6, a set of events would happen. Two months later, A$AP Rocky would release his iconic single “Purple Swag”, which led to A$AP Mob and SpaceGhostPurrp to start a short-lived friendship, leading them to collaborate with each other, most notably on Rocky’s debut mixtape LIVE.LOVE.A$AP. However, their friendship didn’t last long, as a set of events would lead them to have one of the most documented feuds in hip-hop history.

After coming back to Miami, his influence started expanding even more as more members were joining his collective, such as Denzel Curry, Chris Travis, Eddy Baker, Xavier Wulf, Key Nyata, Amber London and many more, going as far as to releasing a collective album Tales from the Underground in 2013.

Sadly, the collective would officially be disbanded in 2015 due to Purrp’s beef with the A$AP Mob, alongside internal conflicts within members of Raider Klan itself. This wouldn’t stop him from staying true to his vision, though, as he still pushed and released bodies of work throughout the 2010’s even after his peak,

In 2012, Purrp would sign a deal with the independent label 4AD and would release the Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp album, which mostly consisted of remastered songs from 2011’s BLVCKLVND RVDIX 66.6. Purrp explained the motive behind making that album in this interview with Thrasher Magazine, saying:

The best thing that’s gonna come out right now is […] re-releasing my old shit […]. Everything remastered […] so people can really hear who I am, music-wise, like remastering the sounds, the vocals, and everything […]. Blackland, NASA Tape, everything that was lo-fi is gonna be […] remastered and […] full effect, like it was just made […] this year.

During that same year, after releasing his debut album, he released a 13-track mixtape called B.M.W, an experimental project that takes the whole Memphis revival sound he ran with and combines it with disturbing, dark, apocalyptic, noisy, and chaotic sounds and melodies, making it a unique listening experience.

However, this would be the last time that Purrp would continue the memphis revival “phonk” sound because as time went on, he focused less on remastering the old memphis rap sound and instead focused more on perfecting his dark trap sound during 2013-2015 with projects such as The Winter’s Mine, IntoXXXicated, Larry Bird Season and Dark Angel Project Part 1.

In 2015, Purrp, along with fellow Ohio native artist CHXPO, created the BMB Deathrow Collective, a post-Raider-Klan group that took Purrp’s signature sound and experimented with it to such extreme levels that it became its own unique entity.
The first notable members to ever join the collective were Loko Los, Evil Haze, IAMPISSED, ScrewManeFlame, LZA, and MajinBlxxdy.

Purrp talked about the motive behind creating BMB on the same HAM ON EVERYTHING interview, saying:

BMB was […] to unite all gangs in America, but […] all the niggas that rap, they in like different […] gangs and shit […]. Raider Klan was to […] help the youth, period […]. But BMB was to […] focus all young black gang members into positive shit […] like CHXPO and shit, you know.

During his time in BMB, he released tons of projects, many of which became blueprints for the experimental dark trap sound he was pushing, most notably Blackland Radio 666 Pt. 2 Episode 1. and BLVCK MVNXXY JXRDVN, in which, compared to his projects from the early 2010s which focused more on nostalgia, Memphis revival and energy, emphasized atmosphere and terror rather than energy and lyrical ability. By experimenting with dark, somber, ominous, and nocturnal sounds combined with unhinged, demonic, violent, and evil lyrics, Purrp created a unique experience for listeners, showing them what the dark trap sound truly is about: experimentation, chaos, authenticity, and transgressing the boundaries set against self-expression and art.

As time went on, BMB started expanding in the late 2010’s, adding more members to the group’s roster, most notably Bloodline Genesis and KRXXK whom Purrp would later work with on projects such as FLORIDA BABY, Blood Moon and Dragon Nigga No Slime.

Unfortunately, BMB would be disbanded in 2020 due to internal conflicts within members of the collective, but as always, this didn’t stop Purrp from pushing his vision as he not only kept making music, but has also kept collaborating with some members of the former collective even after it got disbanded.

With a reputation of infamy, a pattern of mental instability, instances of being rejected by people he formerly considered family, and an apathy towards conforming to other people’s opinions and standards, it’s pretty safe to say that his music reflects his character quite perfectly. His music, just like his personality, is chaotic, transgressing, experimental, artistic, controversial, eccentric, and non-conforming, something which is rarely seen in this flawed musical landscape where plagiarism, unoriginality, and trend-hopping are prioritized instead of authenticity, experimentation, and innovation.