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InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 16

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slow him down, with the rapper/painter<br />

(now 30) only building momentum in the<br />

seven years between Bothic’s release and<br />

now, dropping eight records along the<br />

way.<br />

A new one, Microphone Fiend, which landed<br />

at the start of April, puts Zelooperz at an<br />

impressive nine albums since 20<strong>16</strong>, a<br />

rather remarkable pace for any musician,<br />

even in the hyper-fast streaming era. It's<br />

also remarkable that his output remains<br />

solid and dynamic, Microphone Fiend<br />

offering no particular drop in quality from<br />

the horror-tinged Gremlin, nor the more<br />

freewheeling Dyno-Mite (on which he and<br />

Danny reconvene to trade verses over the<br />

Crash Bandicoot music) <strong>—</strong> both highlights<br />

of this recent rapid-fire release schedule.<br />

On the other hand, Microphone Fiend isn’t<br />

so much better or so much more<br />

distinctive than those other projects (pop<br />

R&B concept album Get WeT.Radio could<br />

at least claim the latter), all of them<br />

decent enough, often amusing, but<br />

generally a few songs short of being<br />

wholly great. Album opener “Climate<br />

Change” kicks things off by sampling<br />

Little Richard’s 1988 Grammy presenter<br />

gig (“And the best new artist is… Me!”), as<br />

if to signal Zelooperz frustrations with<br />

the continued lack of industry respect,<br />

before launching into a jaunty, rolling<br />

Chuck Inglish beat worthy of Chance the<br />

Rapper. His vocal affectations end up<br />

landing somewhere near Chano’s as well,<br />

ALBUM REVIEWS<br />

while still often bringing DB to mind,<br />

operating on a gradient that runs from a<br />

yelp to a bark.<br />

To his credit, Zelooperz never appears<br />

constrained by these seemingly narrow<br />

parameters, challenging his delivery to<br />

adapt to a range of production<br />

possibilities (“Demon n Deities” taking<br />

this to a near experimental extreme),<br />

though really it’s mostly the more<br />

aggressive, hard-hitting beats (“Bustin<br />

Jieber,” “Can’t Fill Your Tank”) that<br />

provoke his strongest performances, as<br />

has often been the case in the past. At<br />

times a charming, elusive figure, at other<br />

times a bit too taken with juvenalia and<br />

“weird humor,” Zelooperz continues to<br />

define his world with Microphone<br />

Fiend without necessarily<br />

making huge progress. Still, one<br />

gets the sense that this record,<br />

like the rest, could be a piece of<br />

a bigger picture. The last few<br />

years have found Zelooperz<br />

collaborating fruitfully outside<br />

and underneath the Bruiser<br />

Brigade umbrella, finding worthy<br />

peers like Earl Sweatshirt,<br />

BbyMutha, Pink Siifu, Fly Anakin,<br />

etc. <strong>—</strong> inspiring artists with<br />

interesting approaches to the<br />

genre. This, in tandem with the<br />

consistent quality of his<br />

projects, is reason enough to<br />

continue to believe Zelooperz is<br />

carving out a notable space in<br />

hip hop right now. <strong>—</strong> M.G.<br />

MAILLOUX<br />

LABEL: Bruiser Brigade;<br />

RELEASE DATE: March 28<br />

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