an epic screwed freestyle joint from another overlooked Southside rapper, Z-Ro. This is from Crack, an album which finds the much loved and respected Southern rapper in usual low spirits exploring themes such as isolation (there’s something about Z-Ro’s loner persona, being from the lone star state, lone star state of mind?), crime, fake friends, and selfish women with a few bright, joyful moments—but it seems overall, still uncompromisingly gloomy like much of his previous works.
lots of folks are (surprisingly) surprised when they find out that, in terms of artists with a cynical/dark/depressing tone, houston’s got some cultural capital (from trae to bill hicks to jandek…).
great track, but i do kind of think z-ro’s fallen off a bit, consistencywise, in the last year or two. i find trae’s new album quite a bit sharper, lyrically.
that said, though…i just realized he just went on for fucking NINE MINUTES.
talk about a zone.
Ro is a beast when it comes to off the top freestyling. even tho that nine minutes at regular speed is about five and half mins. “Mo City Don Freestyle” is also great.
& you’re right Crack is not his greatest work, though , for me it’s between Let The Truth Be Told and Look What You Did…
not familiar with the other artists you mentioned, will check tho.
hahaha…you’re right, i forgot about the whole regular speed thing. still though!
as far as the other artists, i mean, bill hicks is a comedian and jandek’s a folky. dark, cynical, depressingish.
trae, though, is z-ro’s frequent partner in crime, from ABN (assholes by nature) to SLAB to basically all the stuff screwed up click has put out in recent years. maybe i’ll post something of a primer soonish on La Mancha.
I’m aware of Trae, ABN and SLAB— T’s Life Goes On is exceedingly colder than Crack.
Watched/listen to some clips of Jandek… brilliant blues, You Walk Alone.