Friday, April 29, 2022

Young Zee - DNA



From a feature on the diamond selling Fugees’ classic The Score, to a shelved album on Shady records, Young Zee has risen from the New Jerz underground to a humbling from the innate savagery of the music industry. As a Founding member of the Outsidaz, Young Zee saw those successes and trappings more than 20 years ago. After a long hiatus involving some legal dealings, Zee returns reinvigorated on his first official release since his 2012 album with Mr. Green, One Crazy Weekend. 

On Scumbag, Young Zee partners with Australian producer Flu for an EP of witty bars over focused beats. With features from veterans such as fellow Outsidaz member Pace Won, Zee calls on other stalwarts like underground heavy Vinnie Paz, emcee R., as well as the highly-respected Flipmode queen, Rah Digga. 

Throughout the EP, Melbourne-based producer, Flu brings his brand of moody film score loops and obscure arrangements for Zee to flourish on. Flu provides the eerie tension of a crime scene on “Monkey Bars” and a hazy fog of grime on the title track where Zee aptly spits some pure filth over. Flu utilizes some great drums on tracks like “STFU” while allowing others to breathe a bit more like the strings-fueled “DNA.”

Across 7 tracks, Zee hits you with his off-the-wall, boundary-pushing flows, finding his comfort zone in his humorous bars and playfully extreme content. The only real departure from this, we find a more serious Zee with his thought-provoking storytelling of generations of slavery and racism on “Slave Son.” Here Flu provides a bleak soundscape for Young Zee to speak on real issues.

A pairing of these 2 unique individuals offers us a tight project embodying the grubbiness and those foul emanations from their combined abhorrent tastes, genuinely earning the title Scumbag. 


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