The Isolation of Detroit’s ZelooperZ

ZelooperZ raps like the world is going to combust. It’s not future apocalypse Blade Runner rap, but something that closer approximates the fear of current decay. The latest single from the...
By    June 6, 2014

zeelooperz-hit-aZelooperZ raps like the world is going to combust. It’s not future apocalypse Blade Runner rap, but something that closer approximates the fear of current decay. The latest single from the Bruiser Brigade breakout is called “Isolation,” and you can almost imagine him rapping it from an abandoned building in downtown Detroit, squatting with an MPC and a mic and rapping to the stucco and rats — waiting for a girl to teleport. No communication through SnapChat — only S.O.S. smoke signals.

Danny Brown and ODB are obvious influences in a good way — in that the message absorbed is to stretch music until isolation can sound like insanity. Without some starving death knell in his voice, you could almost take this for a put-on, but when it matches to the drums crushing like industrial machinery, you want to start throwing bricks through boarded up store fronts.  He talks about drawing guns like manga and his voice hits upper register like he just stuck up Tyrone Biggums. It’s raw in the sense that there is no paint or varnish. Nothing stops you from the withering elements or alienation. But there’s a sense that ZelooperZ isn’t just letting letting words fly for the sake of reaction. This is a trigger patiently pulled back for 20 years and finally let loose.

ZelooperZ drops his free album Help next Friday, June 13. More videos are below the jump and “Isolation” itself.

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