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It had to happen. The South's hottest, most ferocious lyric spitter
joining forces with the world's number one independent rap music
label. When Z-Ro hooked up with J-Prince, CEO of Rap-A-Lot Records,
in 2003, it marked the consummation of the most lethal combination
in hip-hop. The world better get ready. If you don't know about
Z-Ro 'Da Crooked', well, you best to ask somebody…
The lyrical barrage from the mouth of Z-Ro
on "Bitch Nigga", from Scarface's Balls And My Word,
was not the action of an upstart trying to make a name in the
game. By the end of 2003, Z-Ro, had officially released 10 albums
(with independent sales averaging over 30,000 units each).
Z-Ro, born and raised in Houston, South
Park area, (Also home to Scarface) states "It was the regular
lil' ghetto life, ya know?" says the rapper of his formative
years. "I wasn't born into no ghetto, my people had money
so I was goin' to a good elementary school. But then tragedy strikes
- my momma die. I'm livin' house to house now, 'cos don't nobody
want an extra mouth to feed." Times were hard, and with no
fatherly guidance, a young Z-Ro had to fend for himself. "I
was on my own pretty much 'til 13," he continues. "I
got 13 and I moved back with my grandmother. From then on, it
was crazy. Muthafuckers gettin' shot, killin' themselves, drugs.
That shit hit me like a storm. I got caught up in the underflow.
I became a product of that for real, I became a muthafuckin' threat."
It wasn't until Z-Ro grew older, that the
trauma of his mother's death hit him. She died from cancer, and
20 years old, Z-Ro still very much remembers. "I was six-years-old,
I seen my momma when the paramedics came in, took her up off the
bed, with a sheet over her face," he recalls. "I ain't
know what that meant at six-years-old. I thought 'damn, why y'all
messin' with my momma, she asleep'. When I got into my first apartment
at 15, then it hit me for real, 'cos I was payin' all the bills.
It tore me up."
It was through hip-hop that Z-Ro found
a channel for his experiences. While playing basketball at Willow
Ridge High, he was also getting good grades. "I mean, I was
doin' it right," he says. Then, another setback. He got shot,
and couldn't pass the physical to play ball. To this day, Z-Ro
carries the shell casing in his body. "I was like 'I can't
play ball no more, I don't want to be robbin' and shit, let me
give this rap shit a try,'" he says.
By this time he had moved to Missouri City
(a Houston suburb known to locals as 'Mo City'), and befriended
local rap group, Street Military, who were signed to EMI-. "I'd
go over they house, we playin' ball, smokin' weed, and around
8 o'clock, Lil' Flea used to come downstairs and be like 'look,
we gonna start recording. Everybody that ain't recording, get
the fuck out! If you ain't here to work, leave'," recollects
Z-Ro. "So I stayed, just to peep out the process. They was
writin', bobbin' they head, smokin' weed, singin' and shit. I
fell in love with that and it seemed like overnight it came to
me, ya know? I had always been in singing groups and church choirs,
my old man played music, my momma used to sing. It was in my genes
already, I just had to tap into it."
Now a member of Street Military's Killa Klan collective, with
his rap skills being honed, Z-Ro found himself inducted into DJ
Screw's infamous Screwed-Up Click in 1997. But Screw wasn't the
only one to pick up on Z-Ro's talent, and what followed over the
next five years were a string of independent albums, considered
by fans around the world to be Down South classics.
Z-Ro's first release, Look What You Did
To Me, was described by Murder Dog magazine in 1998 as a "ground-breaking
record" and a "masterpiece". It went on: "Z-Ro
is that unusual kind of rap artist who can sing every bit as good
as he can rap", and "lyrically, the way he crafts his
songs, he's a genius". It was that kind of sentiment that
set the tone. People who hear Z-Ro don't sit on the fence. His
music has a passion and urgency that forces you to deal with it.
Most fall in love with it. Interestingly, that first album regularly
sold for over $100 on online auction site eBay, before its recent
re-release.
1999 saw the release of the equally lauded
Rise by the Guerilla Maab, a group Z-Ro formed with his cousin
Trae, and brother Dougie-D. Then in 2000 came his second solo
album, the acclaimed Z-Ro Vs. The World, followed by King Of Da
Ghetto in 2001. Songs like "World Wide" and "Still
My Life" combined strong subject matter with commercial and
club appeal, and with Z-Ro's numerous guest appearances on releases
from the likes of Big Moe, DJ Screw and ESG, the rapper enjoyed
a growing following of loyal fans. "Each album was like a
stepping stone to now," adds Z-Ro. "On my first album
I did free shows, my second album I did $500 shows, and so on.
The more money starts building up in my pocket, okay, now the
more dope I am, ya know what I'm sayin'?" As such, Z-Ro shows
are guaranteed roadblocks throughout the South.
With the release of an astonishing three
solo albums in 2002 - Screwed Up Click Representa , Z-Ro, and
Life, and a new Guerilla Maab album, Resurrected - all active
on the Billboard charts, Z-Ro's status as the most in-demand rapper
not only Houston, but in the South period, was solidified. Then
came the call from Rap-A-Lot, where Z-Ro has been made an official
group member.
With appearances in XXL, The Source, and
Murder Dog in 2003, the world is beginning to embrace a new superstar
in our midst. But don't judge Z-Ro on the fact that he dissed
the so-called biggest rap star in the world, on the aforementioned
"Bitch Nigga". There's so much more to him than that.
He truly is the 'Mo City Don'.
www.rapalotrecords.com
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