This album was released on May 18th this year. I can’t really say I was expecting to enjoy this at all. I’ve never really been a fan of ZelooperZ in the past, although there are a handful of songs from him that I do like. The first project I ever heard from him was his HELP mixtape, which was okay. There were a lot of songs on it that I liked, but none that I loved. His next project, Bothic, was pretty fuckin’ bad to me. I only liked one song on it. I was very intrigued by that collaborative album he released with Shigeto as ZGTO in 2017 though. I think it has some of the best songs he’s ever made. Him and Shigeto are a really good pair in my opinion. He sounds really good over that style of production. However, HELP is still his most consistent project in my opinion. When I first listened to his music, he basically just seemed like if Danny Brown didn’t really focus that much on being a great rapper and only made music in the style of Side B of Old. ZelooperZ’s flow is incredibly sloppy, his delivery is super eccentric and all over the place, and his writing is almost always very crude. He released an EP in February called Wild Card, and I thought it was really bad. Honestly, I think it’s the worst project I’ve heard from him. I’d actually heard that this project that I’m reviewing today was a lot better though, and a lot of my friends like it, so that’s why I decided to check it out. I was still keeping my expectations in check though.

Fortunately, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. There are actually some songs that I fuck with on this project. I personally wouldn’t call this album “good,” but it’s definitely a step up from that Wild Card EP he dropped in February. I think the best aspect of the whole album is the production. The entire thing is produced by Black Noi$e, who has worked on almost all of Z’s projects in the past. This is kinda fucked up, but if I’m being completely honest, the production is really the only aspect of this album that truly impresses me. ZelooperZ rarely does anything to enhance them in my opinion. I’d prefer if I just had the instrumental versions of these songs. Well, that’s not completely true. I did like what Z did on the first track, JayJay-Z.

I can’t really say I’m very impressed by Black Noi$e’s work on this track since it’s pretty much just the instrumental from Jay-Z’s Where I’m From with a slight pitch shift. It’s still entertaining though since the original beat is so good. ZelooperZ was actually rapping relatively well on this track compared to his previous work. It’s not super lyrical, and his flow kinda devolves as the track progresses, but I enjoyed the song overall. It’s definitely a flawed track, but I was able to enjoy it.

Bootleg was another pretty cool track. The production was amazing. That’s really the main reason I fuck with the song. Z’s rapping wasn’t that great, and it almost seemed a little Playboi Carti-esque at certain points. His flow would fall apart occasionally, and the uninteresting lyrics really went in one ear and out the other. The beat was so good that I could tolerate it though. I liked the screwed outro too. I feel the same way about Born Again. Z legitimately sounded like a rambling crackhead, but the production was so good that I tolerated it. I know that sounds really disrespectful, so I kinda hope he doesn’t end up reading this review. I feel like if your artistry is as unorthodox as his you don’t really take criticism too seriously though, which is definitely a good thing. Unless he’s completely delusional, he has to know that his music isn’t gonna appeal to everyone, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Boys is one of my favorite tracks on the album. Again, the production is great, and ZelooperZ’s rapping was relatively solid. The song features a dude named Mani Luv, and he left absolutely no impression on me at all. He only performed on the intro and the outro, and he didn’t stand out at all. The mixing on his verse seemed kinda weird to me too. His vocals seemed really quiet for me. His verse didn’t bother me though. I was really indifferent towards it. Hurt Nobody was a really strange track, but it was actually another one of my favorites. Once again the production was stellar. Z was singing throughout the whole track, and his vocals were objectively trash, but they were kind of endearing in a strange way. I actually really liked it. I mean, the singing was bad, but not unlistenable. I liked it. It’s a pretty simplistic track in terms of the structure, but I fuck with it.

Bigger Than Me is the last song that I enjoyed, and it’s another favorite of mine. It has another great beat, and I actually think it’s the best song lyrically. ZelooperZ has a more traditional delivery on this track, although it gets more unorthodox as the song progresses. I like the hook a lot. I just wish the verse had a more solid structure. It starts off cool, but it just gets really sloppy as it progresses. I still really fuck with the song though. So yeah, those are all the songs that I actually like. I guess I’ll talk about the stuff I wasn’t so crazy about. To be fair, there’s only one song on this project that I think is legitimately bad, and it’s Love Operation. The production is pretty solid, but it’s definitely one of the weaker beats on the project. Z is singing throughout the entire song, and it’s not good singing, but it’s not unlistenable. It lacks the odd charm that Hurt Nobody had though. The whole track just feels like a huge waste of time. It’s very underwhelming and uninteresting. I felt the same way about Smoking Chocolate, but to a lesser extent. It has another one of the least enjoyable beats on the project for me. I mean, it’s a cool beat, but it’d work better for someone who’s actually a good rapper. I think Freddie Gibbs would sound amazing over that beat. Conway or Benny would fit over it perfectly as well. It just doesn’t work for someone like ZelooperZ who isn’t that great of an MC. It’s just an uneventful song. Z’s rapping is very sloppy, and he doesn’t do anything to hold my interest. It’s mediocre to me. All of the other tracks are okay, but they lack replay value for me.

The only aspect of Prozac that I really enjoyed was the production. Z’s performance was just really uninteresting. I didn’t care for his flow, and there wasn’t a single line that stood out to me.

Easter Sunday has another one of the less interesting beats in my opinion. It has a really cheerful sound, which is kinda cool I guess. The first verse from Z was alright, but I didn’t care for Earl’s verse, which is kinda funny because Earl Sweatshirt seems to be the only reason anybody even checked this project out. It wasn’t bad. I think it’s really well-written. I just don’t like Earl’s lethargic delivery at all. It sounds like he OD’d on sleeping pills right before he recorded it. The mixing on his verse was kinda fucked up too. He was almost drowned out by the instrumental. It wasn’t as bad as the mixing on Mani Luv’s verse though. It was also cool to hear him reference Odd Future. I really don’t get why people were saying that he was rapping like DOOM on this track though because he sounds absolutely nothing like DOOM. His flow and delivery are completely different. I don’t even think their writing styles are similar. So yeah, I didn’t really care for the song. It’s decent though. Show Love was another okay track. I really wish there was an instrumental version of the song somewhere. Maybe there is. I didn’t actually look for one. It kinda reminds me of the beat Black Milk made for Atrocity Exhibition. I really didn’t care for Z’s performance over it at all. His melodic delivery was kinda cool at first, but it got old very quickly. Maybe I’d like it if I wasn’t sober. Probably not though. Being high really doesn’t change how I feel about music at all. So yeah.

Overall I think this project is okay. It’s certainly not bad. In fact, I’d probably say this is ZelooperZ’s best project to date, which is interesting since it was preceded by arguably his worst project. I think there are good songs on here, but once again, there aren’t any tracks that I completely love. I think I’m just gonna give up on this ZelooperZ guy for now. I’m just gonna have to accept that he’s not for me, and he most likely won’t ever make a project that I actually like. If he releases a project in the future that gets a shit ton of praise, then I’ll probably look into it, but for now I’m good. This album is just okay to me.

Favorite Song: Hurt Nobody
Least Favorite Song: Love Operation

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