Saturday, June 1, 2019

album review: 'ZUU' by denzel curry

I'll admit I wasn't expecting this.

Granted, I'll admit that might as well be a tagline for most of my experiences with Denzel Curry - from a smoked-out, nerdier brand hip-hop to the hyper-aggressive but potent as hell bangers of Imperial to the more stylized and diverse TA1300, his sound has only expanded and shown deeper wells of potential to grab a bigger and bigger following, so I guess I'm not averse to the 'coming home party banger' project that plays closer to a mixtape feel. Hell, one of my issues with TA1300 was that the experimentation felt a little undercooked, so maybe streamlining on a 'back to basics' mold could connect, and he's got a penchant for melody and hooks that puts many of his peers to shame. And considering how much I've really been looking for a "fun" hip-hop project over the past couple of weeks if he's going to drop something looser and overloaded with summer bangers, I'm be intrigued - I'm not sure I've heard Denzel Curry sound like he's having fun on an album in recent years, and I'm always conscious of the depth he'll slip between the lines. And while I'm not expecting him to give Sage Francis or B. Dolan a run for their money given how they came off This Was Supposed To Be Fun, I wanted to hear this regardless, and it was short enough to go down easy - so what did Denzel Curry deliver with ZUU?

So okay, this review might wind up being a little short because there's a limit to how much you can really say about ZUU - it's a blunt wallop of blown-out, Miami-based hip-hop that Denzel Curry says he entirely freestyled and I absolutely believe it. It is a project that could have easily been released as a party mixtape both now and fifteen years ago and nobody would have batted an eye - in fact, the best way I've found to take this in is like one of those old crunk tapes that seemed to drop every other day between 2002 and 2007 from Houston, Atlanta, or Miami. So if it sounds thrown together, slapdash in its mixing and presentation, and pretty damn meat-headed... well, that's because it is - and maybe it's just nostalgia for that sound, but while I can clearly recognize some obvious flaws with this approach, I had a fair amount of fun with it, while realizing exactly what it is.

Now granted, if you're coming in with the conceptual or lyrical expectations coming from Imperial or TA13OO, you're bound to think this is lazy or even hypocritical coming from Denzel Curry, and if you're seeing this as his 'Bobby Tarantino' moment, I would understand why, because it's absolutely obvious he's punching below his weight class with this project, more than ever riding on raw energy than anything smarter. And that's not to ignore the flaws of a project like this because they are numerous - both the skits 'YOO' and 'BLACKLAND 66.6' are disposable, not particularly funny, and are clearly here to boost the track list, 'BUSHY B INTERLUDE' sounds basically unfinished, and the increasingly shrill chipmunk vocal filter on passages of 'CAROLMART' AND 'SHAKE 88' got grating in record time - a shame because otherwise I really liked the groove and bounce of both tracks. And it is unmistakable that Denzel Curry has simplified his flow and structure across these cuts, which means his occasional corny references become a fair bit more obvious - 'throw shade on my light, that's a lamp' on 'AUTOMATIC', 'put a red beam to your head like Arby's' on 'SPEEDBOAT', and on 'P.A.T.' where he's hollering his lungs out on one of the heaviest songs next to TA13OO, we get a guy getting hit with the 'boom-shaka-laka' and on the hook from PlayThatBoiZay where he sounds damn near comical, 'all black, sticks out like I'm Voldemort', a line that might worked with the atmosphere if you didn't call the wands 'sticks'. And that's not even touching on the references to Dragonball Z or Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but beyond that, if you're looking at content, it's a lot of gunplay, flexing, Denzel Curry repping his home squad in Miami and specifically Carol City, a few songs about hookups - although thankfully we're spared any sex songs - and enough touches of pitch-black nihilism and death around them to provide context for the emptiness on display. Rick Ross ends his verse referencing Nipsey Hussle, Denzel Curry references gives a R.I.P to both XXXTENTACION and his brother, and on 'P.A.T.' he says that he carries 'hollow tips because it reflects what's in my soul' - interesting where a few cuts earlier he says he'd prefer folks stay alive however they can, but that might not be the reality in a city that can be as dangerous as Miami. In other words, you could plug in chunks of ZUU behind movies like Pain & Gain and Spring Breakers and nothing would be out of place - and since there's just enough of that emotive core, the emptiness can work.

Of course, that's a similar justification I've seen behind an act like Future, and he's been a perennial frustration of mine, so why do similar themes work out of Denzel Curry? Well, it's surprisingly not that complicated: production, tempo, and energy. None of his pickups are remotely close to being as polished as Future's autotuned crooning, but that ramshackle mix that ratchets up rattling abrasion, a plethora of noisy ad-libs, and huge knocking hooks is built for a riotous party and little else. I drew the crunk comparison before and it's all the more relevant here: if it sounds slapped together and rowdy that's because it is, and yet Denzel Curry is canny enough to not default to overplayed trap clunkers or a bass knock devoid of tune, which was my biggest issue with Megan Thee Stallion's last project. Hell, the rattling gurgle of the synth careening off the crushing bass of 'RICKY', the off-key grinding squeal of 'BIRDZ' that sounds like about the last thing Rick Ross would ever rap over, the blaring multi-tracking of the hook and bass rumble of 'CAROLMART', the noisy scratch of 'SHAKE 88', and then 'P.A.T' sounds like a bass-boosted version of itself... if you hate the rough mixing, I get it, but there are tunes that are at least centered in most of these cuts, and that's before you get the glittery synths and 90s-inspired sample backing 'WISH' that's remarkably catchy, probably one of my favourite cuts here. And honestly, even despite how rough around the edges they sounded, they felt more distinctive and energetic than your standard trap bass of 'AUTOMATIC' from Tay Keith or the pianos behind 'SPEEDBOAT', even I would rate them as above average in trap just for Denzel Curry bringing a lot of energy and even credible melody to support the hooks.

But as a whole... honestly, if Denzel Curry had released this as a mixtape I could have seen him not quite getting as much backlash as this has received as the album follow-up to TA13OO, and even then it feels weird to praise Denzel Curry making bangers that feel this disposable. But that was part of crunk's baseline appeal: heavy-handed, noisy bangers that live and die on the basis of hooks and production that was cheap and disjointed enough to pick up menace and an unnerving catchiness, and Denzel Curry has the lean cunning to tap into it. This is single-minded mosh pit music... and honestly, by that standard, a significant chunk of this album is pretty great at it. Unfortunately, there are a few tonal choices that don't click for me and a few trap concessions that didn't need to be here - to say nothing of the lingering annoyance that if Denzel Curry had written down more of this we could well have a lyrical crunk project - and as such it's getting a 7/10 and a recommendation... but it very much is a qualified one. If you're expecting this to be a smart follow-up to Imperial or TA13OO it is absolutely not that... but if you have a fondness for this era of noisy bangers and can see their value, I think you'll get a summer's worth of fun out of it, so check your expectations and then check this out.

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