Introducing... Zilla Rocca

First of all, if you’ve never heard the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers, take some time out to fix that today. Zilla Rocca is the man behind the mic on that project, and he’s teamed up with World Around for some new projects. We met up at a dive bar in Quebec City for this introductory interview…

Thirtyseven: What are the influences that have brought you to where you are today?

Zilla Rocca: I got caught up in ‘08-‘09 with people I no longer work with in trying to be something that I wasn’t, namely to land a nice plushy Major Label Rap Contract. At the same time, I was doing Shadowboxers, which became the biggest thing I’d ever done. But the people I was dealing with didn’t like it, didn’t understand it, and frankly became resentful and petty when it proved to be more successful than any of their work. But I was a “team” player and enjoyed their stuff, so I was gung-ho about sleeping with the devil because we were “a squad”. I compromised myself, something I swore I’d never do.

Now that I no longer deal with them, I’ve realized that the people I respect and enjoy the most don’t do things conventionally. They don’t buy into the norms of What You Must Do As An Artist in 2010. El-P has never played it safe; his music is raw, he stands behind it, it’s got bite and it’s distinctive. He ONLY does him. Zach Galifianakis, who I worshipped since his days on VH1’s “Late World”, is hugely known from “The Hangover”, but it took him a decade of failing to get there. He’s had shows and movies all flop (hello “Corky Romano” and “Dog Bites Man”), but he just kept refining his craft as a killer comedian and it eventually paid off. He was only concerned with mastering his craft and things worked out. Mos Def is the best songwriter in hip hop. His arrangement, beat selection, collaborators—they’re all a cut above what anyone else is doing. Mos cannot be pinned down and his advancement makes me never want to listen to Talib Kweli again. And last on my influences is Shabazz Palaces. After Jeff Weiss put me on to them, I got all my buddies hooked to them. It’s exciting music that has no comparison to anything else brought to by Ish of Digable Planets, another guy who could’ve thrown in the towel. The way they DON’T do press and make their stuff elusive and detail oriented at the same time — it excites me as a listener and gives me hope as an indie internet artist because they don’t play by the rules and are rewarded.

Thirtyseven: What have you been listening to in 2010? Who are you feeling in this day and age?

Zilla Rocca: I’ve been listening to more beat-based stuff—it’s almost impossible not to because it’s so big. I really liked Tobacco’s album Maniac Meat. I like Ital Tek’s album, my old friend Starkey’s new album. Bonobo’s Black Sands. Both of Shabazz Palaces EP’s. Big Boi’s album because it’s really refreshing and bright. The Roots’ album because it doesn’t sound like the old Roots. Alot from my buddy Elucid‘s catalogue.

Outside of that, I feel very overwhelmed with new music, like I have to listen to stuff just to stay current. It makes things harder to ingest and enjoy because you have to hurry up and get to the next thing and it’s all free on zip files and you’re listening on your laptop while doing 15 other things. So I been sticking to my old CD’s like Gravediggaz, Organized Konfusion, David Bowie, cLOUDDEAD, the Life Aquatic Soundtrack, old Def Jux stuff. It feels good when you know every part of an album, not just the four MP3 standouts on your iPod.

Thirtyseven: What can hapless listeners expect from the Weak Stomach EP?

Zilla Rocca: I think it’ll be a cool introduction to Shadowboxers, which is now my primary function/identity for releasing music, to people who jumped aboard with Broken Clocks EP and realized it wasn’t a one-time thing. I thought it would be cool to do a joint EP/maxi-single to give extra shelf life to the song “Weak Stomach” and the other incarnations of it that Alex Ludovico and Curly Castro have birthed in the last year.

It’s about being consistent but also maximizing your output. If you put out 10 projects a year, you as an artist are telling me you don’t value the previous nine (unless you’re Madlib). Let it marinate. Let people digest it. Let people discover it months later and love it. I think rappers are really insecure and thirsty for hits and attention so they think the best way to get it is to keep on rappin’. It tells me they don’t believe in their work. I believe in what we do, and the EP is going to have three previously released tracks, 1 brand new posse cut with myself, Castro and Alex, then remixes from Small Pro and Egon Brainparts like how The Roots did a heft vinyl release for “Proceed” with like 9 different versions of that song. That’s still one of my favorite Roots songs ever and it came out in 1994. There’s so many versions of it, you have to like one, right?

Thirtyseven: What’s your favorite track you’ve done so far?

Zilla Rocca: The favorite track(s) I’ve done so far haven’t been released yet, and it’s killing me to sit on them but in all due time they’ll get out there. One is a very personal song called “Color Bars” with this band in Sweden who asked me to work after hearing my remix of “The Contender” by Menahan Street Band. I don’t write about myself much anymore—I think it’s boring, but this song is very full. It was challenging and summed up a very beautiful time in my life. It kinda wrote itself, which doesn’t happen very often. The other track is called “Philly Crime” with Curly Castro and Elucid. It’s with Dylan & Kitech of the drum n bass universe. I was really nervous about it because I had never done a drum n bass song before, but it came out really good and Dylan has played it live in Philly, Seattle and New Orleans and his fans have eaten it up. We’re now doing a full-on project of sorts with Dylan and Kitech and have briefly discussed touring the record hopefully in the future whenever it’s done. It opened the door to do more non-traditional rap stuff and I love doing terrifying things because that’s how I learn to do them.

FURTHEROLOGY: Several months ago, Zilla Rocca did an excellent interview with Audible Hype, titled “DIY Everything”, that got a great response and dropped a lot of gems about the indie hip hop game in 2010. If you’re playing in that particular arena, definitely check that out.

Obviously, you’ll be hearing a lot more from Zilla Rocca very, very shortly…