No genre has ever gone anywhere by remaining stagnant with the same sounds. The people who inspire the greats are those who push the genre forward, and that is exactly what Zelooperz does.
He has been pushing the boundaries of hip hop since his humble beginnings as the first signee to Danny Brown’s now prestigious label Bruiser Brigade. Zelooperz was making aggressive vocally-oriented trap songs in 2014 before we ever heard of the likes of XXXTENTACION or any of the new artists taking that route and clawing for streams off TikTok.
Not to mention, Zelooperz dove into a trip-hop phase before JPEGMAFIA or Injury Reserve really took off as well. However, it was around 2019-2020 when Zelooperz hit his stride. He perfected his out-of-the-box vocal style and found the type of production which suits him: the most mind-shattering beats you’ve ever heard for the most part. He went on a run in 2020 with three outstanding projects, “Gremlin,” “Moszel Offline” and my personal favorite of the three, “Valley of Life.” After the last of the three in 2020 Zelooperz took a short break and focused on his side hustle in art.
The break was short lived, thankfully, as at the end of the summer this year he dropped another outstanding body of work. “Van Gogh’s Left Ear” is possibly Zelooperz’s most off-the-wall project yet. To put it in perspective, the beat on the track with Danny Brown is made entirely of an 808 drum machine, some snares and a slew of samples from Crash Bandicoot that are mind-bendingly incorporated into the beat.
Beats aside, Zelooperz consistently knocks it out of the park with his vocals on every album, this one especially. His lyrics range from depressingly real to absurd and hilarious. On top of this, his delivery of bars is always completely out of left field. He will go from rapping in his standard nasally type of delivery only to switch up to a deep and warped voice, which he is genuinely able to make; I had the chance to see him live over the past weekend.
The opening track to this album, “Battery,” is one of the hardest hitting songs Z has ever made with some swirling horns in the beat and a ground-crushing 808. The project is all over the place in terms of sound, but that is what you sign up for when you listen to a Zelooperz album.
This is definitely one of my top albums of the year, and I can’t recommend it more. My favorite tracks include the title track, “Battery,” “Mechanic,” “Paranormal Snaptivity,” “Hostile,” “Crying in the Club,” “Andrea Bocelli” and “Satellites.” 9/10.
Weekly Album Recommendations:
- Ka$hdami – Hypernova
- D Savage – BPL
- Overpade – Hypnotik
- Bo Jackson – Boldy James
Weekly Song Recommendations:
- Bando & Isaiah Rashad – Payday
- 3ohblack – All Talk
- Foggieraw & Zay Ade – Lil Mama It’s Okay
- Lil Yachty – YAE ENERGY
