Video: Z-Ro, “Top Notch” + “Tired”
- story THE FADER
Ten years before Kanye got into being a rapper who sings sad songs, Z-Ro was doing it down in Houston over the course of 12 ridiculously soulful and sorrowful albums. His latest one, Crack came out late last year but a lot of people didn’t even notice or didn’t bother to tell other people to notice, ourselves included. But we’re doing it now! Maybe we waited because it’s just not good for your mental health to listen to Z-Ro in the cold depths of New York winter, but it’s starting to get a little warm now and we are pulling Crack out of mothballs. “Top Notch,” featuring a Pimp C sample organ-grinded by Mr. Lee, and “Tired” with a Mya duet on the hook, both recently got videos (above and after the jump), which is what reminded us to wake up. Do the same and purchase the album from Rap-A-Lot.
Freeload: ABN, “Miss My Dawgs”
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Recently Trae and Z-Ro have been performing for prison audiences, presumably to support their upcoming Assholes By Nature album. We can’t imagine what that’s like, but here’s a guess: Depressing. But both Trae and Z-Ro excel at baritone remorse, forever missing the people they’ve lost. Basically what we’re saying is that it’s kinda weird that we’re looking forward to a full album of emotionally crushing songs like “Miss my Dawgs.” But we are.
Download: ABN, “Miss My Dawgs”
Audio: Trae f. Z-Ro, “Who’s Tha Man”
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Both Trae and Z-Ro are perpetually underrated, creating double time melancholy over meaty southern soul tracks, sometimes venturing into ’90s g-funk territory but always dark and forever questioning everything—good and bad—that rap has brought them. “Who’s Tha Man” is the first single from Trae and Z-Ro’s upcoming Assholes By Nature project.
Audio: Z-Ro f. Lil James & Slim Thug, “Alcohol Nutts”
- story THE FADER
This is buried so deep on Woss Ness’ Bangin’ Screw Vol. 2 that we’re not even sure why it got made or it how it came into our possession, but we are posting it because anytime Z-Ro raps about knocking out drunks on a mic that was probably taped together and plugged into a shitty Dell we get a chill down our spines. Not to mention, the last verse might very well be from a Slim Thug impostor, whose mere existence makes life worth living.
