Forget what you know about hip-hop stereotypes.

Forget the bling, the gangster posing and the hype.

Forget the auto-tuned vocals and self-aggrandizing behavior so prevalent in much of today’s hip-hop.

Marcus Marino, 23, is about none of that.

As one-half of the duo Bop Alloy, Marino – who produces and DJs under the name Marcus D., laying the beats and foundation for his partner Substantial to rap over – says it’s all about the music.

“Bop is short for be-bop, a form of jazz, and alloy is a fusion of two things,” said Marino, a 2008 Auburn Riverside graduate and Seattle University student. “So it just means jazz fusion, hip-hop and jazz. The people who really influence me, as far as my own sound goes, are jazz artists, people like Ramsey Lewis.”

Since 2009, when Marino first forged a partnership with the Baltimore-based Substantial, Bop Alloy has been quietly making its presence felt on the hip-hop scene.

In June the duo hit the big time, earning a mention in Vogue Magazine, which noted the single “Save The Day” in an article about superhero songs to listen to while waiting for the new Batman movie.

“I just woke up one morning in LA – I was there doing a couple of shows,” he said. “And on my Twitter page I had a mention from Vogue mag. I thought it was just a knockoff thing, but it said check out a playlist for the new ‘Dark Knight Rises’ in Vogue. And they mentioned me and Substantial’s name. And they had David Bowie’s name next to ours. And the Rolling Stones.

“I thought it was a joke,” he said. “Then I saw they had actually named the title of the article after our song, ‘Save The Day’ and had our song as one of the songs to listen to as you’re waiting in line for the movie. It was pretty cool. That sort of solidified everything that I’ve been working for with Bop Alloy.”

Not bad for a local kid who first started mixing beats as a freshman in high school.

“A couple of my friends in Riverside were rapping back in the day,” Marino said. “They were all trying to do songs. But they didn’t have enough money to actually buy beats, so they wanted somebody to do the beats for them. I had been playing piano since I was about 6 years old, and I found a program that allowed me to make beats that wasn’t too expensive. So I just started making beats from them, and it just went from there.”

Marcus said that although he started out just wanting to help out his buddies, hip-hop soon became his passion.

“I just found my niche, what I wanted to do, and it provided an outlet for me to do something creative,” he said.

After graduation, Marino decided to kick his music career into high gear and contacted Substantial through MySpace, asking the rapper if he was interested in collaborating.

“Surprisingly, he didn’t have too big of a head to contact me, and we did a song together,” Marino said.

The single garnered the attention of one of Marino’s idols, a Japanese producer, Nujabes, and soon Marino had a deal to produce records with Elevation in Japan.

Marino also has inked a deal with Nujabes’ own Hydeout label to release his own solo stuff in Japan, including his recent “Melancholy Hopeful” release.

“I actually have my own display cases in Tower Records in Japan,” he said. “When I go over there, people actually come up to me in the stores and ask for autographs. It’s really a trip because I’ve never experienced that before, especially with so much of this done online. It’s weird to go to a store and see people actually buying physical copies of my albums, CD and vinyl.”

Marino soon will head to Japan to continue his studies in communications at Seattle U’s sister school in Tokyo, Sophia University, and work on his music career.

“I’m going to be moving there, so I’ll be right in the middle of things,” he said. “I think overall it will be a good experience to get over there and find out how my music is affecting people.”

Marino added that he feels blessed to be able to continue to work in music.

“It’s something that I love doing,” he said. “I heard the phrase that if you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life. And I literally and figuratively haven’t worked a day in my life. It’s pretty nice to not have to go to work to someplace where I don’t want to be and just do something creative.”