Homeboy Sandman’s The Good Sun is for Chip Fu. It’s for Sticky Fingaz. It’s for Fatlip and to some extent, Busta Rhymes. If Homebody Sandman was from the 90’s, he’d be the charismatic funkafied live crazy rhymer in a group. The standout. The breakout star. The verse rewinder. The guy you sat through lesser characters […]

  Zilla Rocca has never tried liquid cocaine, but he’s willing to give it a chance if it means he can record with Raekwon. Question: “Remember when Ye called this his “boom bap record”? It was all going according to plan….until Scott Mescudi pulled Kanye aside and asked him if he wanted to ride the […]

Zilla Rocca doesn’t get angry very often.  He’s a peaceful bloke, who digs the Los Angeles Dodgers, Raymond Chandler, the collected verse of Dennis Coles, and the love a man has for a fine Cuban cigar.  But like most artists that matter, if you push him he wields a ferocious temper, which has manifested itself […]

Design by Fresh of 33 Jones The debut of Summer Jamz is right around the corner, with Jonathan Bradley scouring the globe to wrangle every warm-blooded writer to ensure that you have something to listen to during the sun season. In the interim, Zilla Rocca has compiled his outstanding Fade To Blonde Mix, featuring everyone […]

Such is the strength of this record that Zilla Rocca had to break his hiatus to write this column.  Marcberg, the debut album from Roc Marciano, feels like Tical. You’re transplanted into the room that spawned the album. Tical sounded like a hazy basement in Staten Island, blood-shot eyes, half empty 40 bottles filled with […]

I’m a sucker for free things. Take me to Costco and chances are I’ll amble the aisles for hours inhaling cheese cubes, downing shots of bourbon I can’t afford, and stealing lawn chairs when dull-eyed employees have their back turned. Perhaps you too like free things. If so, this is an epiphany worthy of Frito’s […]

Nepotism bedamned, Zilla Rocca is the rap Tracer Bullet. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are proud too– mediums have been consulted.  The second and long-overdue video from The 5 0′ Clock Shadowboxers Slow Twilight is here. “High Noon” at 5:30 p.m. Download: ZIP: 5 0′ Clock Shadowboxers-Slow Twilight (Left-Click)

“Zilla Rocca Forever” may not have the same ring as “Wu Tang Forever” or even “Donna Martin Graduates,” but the South Illadelphian’s verse over the “Forever” beat from De La’s recent Nike Run Tape, is further evidence why he’s the most rightful inheritor of Aesop Rock and Atmosphere’s abstract rap legacy. Like those two, Zilla’s […]

  The beautiful thing about hip hop is that you can say some of the weirdest, most inane, ridiculoid phrases, but say them with conviction or jest, and suddenly you’re creating New Speak. From “rap at high speed strawberry kiwi” to “gimme them girls with the pumps and a bump”, it’s not really what you […]