As a native Clevelander, B.J. “Doc Zeus” Steiner believes in nothing beyond the icy embrace of Kierkegaardian nihilism. His formative childhood influences include Wu-Tang Clan, Sarah Michelle Gellar, nWo-era Hulk Hogan and game seven of the 1997 World Series. As a fully grown adult, he has learned to embrace the hate and become a semi-professional rap music critic specializing on calling you on your shit. He still watches professional wrestling and is definitely not married. Swipe right, ladies!
Currently Listening:
KR - I$0lyf3 3
Guardians Of The Galaxy: OST
Naughty By Nature - Naughty By Nature
RiFF RaFF - Neon Icon
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Currently Watching:
WCW Monday Nitro Reruns On The WWE Network
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Last Night With John Oliver
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Currently Reading:
David Shoemaker - The Squared Circle: Life, Death & Professional Wrestling Evan Wright - Generation Kill| The Full Miley & The Eternal Lameness Of Taylor Swift | September 24, 2014 |
Taylor Swift: Rap God?
If Old Man Jeezy was hoping to rejuvenate his career, his new LP is unlikely to provide much of a spark to that cause.
Doc Zeus lives in the Brooklyn building owned by Hawkguy One of the central stylistic traditions of Marvel Comics has been the company’s grounding of their universe’s super-powered residents in the recognizable real-life world that their readers currently inhabit. While DC Comic’s Batman broods sullenly atop the gothic, gargoyle-infested skyline of fictional Gotham City, Marvel’s […]
| Doc Zeus: Who’s Afraid Of Riff Raff? | July 10, 2014 |
Doc Zeus drinks super fruit smoothies out of Gucci blenders “Is this guy fucking serious?” Nearly every piece of substantial music journalism conducted around Riff Raff over the last few years seems to center around the earnestness of the Houston rapper’s basic existence. The slack-jawed perplexity surrounding Riff Raff’s rap career, from both journalists and […]
Doc Zeus ain’t supposed to do this shit, but he forgets There is something ironically apropos that the best professional promotion that 50 Cent’s career has enjoyed in years is a gravely errant first pitch delivered at a Mets game. 50’s mockable, misfiring fast ball might have missed the catcher’s mitt but 50 found himself […]
| An Honest Review of Future | April 29, 2014 |
Doc Zeus is honest, even when he lies Atlanta rap troubadour/robot Future is one of rap’s greatest stylists. The breakthrough success of his 2012 debut album, Pluto, transformed Future from a gruff mixtape trap star into something approaching a sensitive, sentient rap love-bot seemingly inventing a new, heavily imitated aesthetic on the fly. Pluto’s audio […]
| Load Up The Spaceship: A Eulogy For The Ultimate Warrior | April 9, 2014 |
One of Doc Zeus’ biggest inspiration is Sting Nobody stays dead forever in comic books. A superhero can ostensibly “die” in the story but the ceaseless continuity of the medium demands that the dead will eventually rise again. Batman died, Spider-Man died, even the seemingly indestructible Superman died. They would all eventually resurrect to continue […]
| YG & The Enduring Legacy Of Gangster Rap | March 20, 2014 |
Doc Zeus is from Bleveland. If your only contact with rap music was through the lunatic rantings of Bill O’Reilly (who reflexively equates “rapper” with “criminal”), you might not know that the influence of gangster rap has declined during the last decade. The transformative success of eclectic, “middle-class” artists such as Kanye West and Drake […]
| Master Denim: The Grotesque Self-Parody Of Rick Ross | March 4, 2014 |
You already knew that Doc Zeus was rooting against all things Miami. The reality of Rick Ross, “rap superstar” seemed absurd even before his fabricated criminal lifestyle came to light. When Rick Ross emerged in Summer 2006, he seemed little more than the fatter, uglier, marginally less authentic version of Young Jeezy – a corporatized […]
| Heaven or Hell: Does Schoolboy Q’s “Oxymoron” Live Up to the Hype? | February 25, 2014 |
Doc Zeus knows the woopty-woop. Creative burnout is the most common pitfall facing young rappers transitioning from blog fame to the unyielding lights of major label stardom. The combination of dwindling-to-non-existent resources for artist development, a democratization of DYI self-recording processes and the Internet’s revolutionary free distribution model spawned a glut of thirsty, talented, unsigned […]
