Zelooperz has been one of the most flavorful rappers of the past decade. His name has lived in the underground rap scene for years — a corner of music where his consistent switch-ups and diverse sounds fit like a perfect puzzle piece. Despite never reaching household-name status or radio play, he is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of modern rap; albums like Dyn-o-Mite and Van Gogh’s Left Ear did not receive much commercial success, but they are some of his most innovative rap projects to date because of his willingness to take risks. On Dali Aint Dead, this unpredictability delivers on track after track, offering listeners a surreal blend of contemporary rap’s sonic palette. Throughout his discography, the Detroit-born rapper’s main struggle has been consistency, but on Dali Aint Dead, his focus is at an all-time high.
Zelooperz creates a meticulous palette of the sounds, plucked from what’s working in rap right now. The result is a vibrant, revitalized sound that paints a surreal portrait of the rap scene over the course of its 36-minute runtime.
The first two songs, “First Instrument” and “Mona Lisa Left Eye,” are warm-ups to Zeelooperz’s style. Reminiscent of his touring artist Earl Sweatshirt’s (Doris) cadence, Zelooperz drops a stumbling-over-the-beat flow over a drumless, high-pitched vocal flip. Similarly, “Mona Lisa Left Eye” brings in a hard-hitting drumbeat that Zelooperz rolls over. Both the songs are easy on the ears and filled with cheeky, deep-cut quips like the verse of “Mona Lisa” where he banters, “Get to spinning on your head like Bebop.”
“Bebe Kids” is another display of Zelooperz’s ability to capture nostalgia, with the title’s referenced movie being a synonym for an unruly child. It’s where the production picks up the energy. It starts off with its sample, Renée Diggs’ “All My Love,” leading into a synth beat drop. Different parts of the sample are flipped throughout, jumping between parts of Diggs’ classic behind the upbeat synth. While the synths keep the mood up, Zelooperz flows into harsher themes, like “Pops and his brother always scammin’ / They killed my cousin on the block, he was gamblin’.” The song is a paradoxical, infectious pick-me-up about harsh life realities. On paper, the bouncy instrumental paired with the lyrics would be hard to execute, but Zelooperz’s risk to juxtapose the two pays off in dividends.
The pace is up, building to the bar-for-bar with Zack Fox (wood tip) on “Push Me Around.” The song is hard-hitting, filled with flaunts of the artist’s pen ability in a childhood-inspired way. Two personal highlights: “Lookin’ out the window with the choppa like Rolf” and “Ten toes down to the ground like Toph.”
My first listen to Dali Aint Blind was blind — I didn’t have the song names or artists visible. But when “NDA” came on, I knew exactly who the feature was before either member said a word: Paris Texas (Mid Air). The menacing beat and backing guitar is nearly identical to Paris Texas’ “PANIC!!!,” a sinister energy Zelooperz matches to a tee with the influence of Paris Texas’ co-producer Louie Pastel (Louie Pastel) on its sleeve — a sonic 180 from the bouncy synths of “Bebe Kids.”
The sound of “Fuck Cigarettes” most directly addresses the surrealism of the album’s namesake. The chorus is a chant-like repetition of the title, while the verse gives listeners lyrical whiplash as Zelooperz talks about his love for cigarettes. It is truly anxiety-inducing yet absurdly humorous. The song also has a contestant for my personal bar of the year in “Cop-boy killer, that American Spirit.”
The song is the album’s halfway point, and the sheer diversity in tracks makes it impossible to tell what’s to come. Each song juxtaposes the one before, but they’re a fusion of Zelooperz’s contemporary inspirations with Zelooperz’s versatile style. The album is an eight-lane highway with Zelooperz in the front and producer Dilip (“Boof”) in the passenger seat, speeding down all eight lanes at once. It just doesn’t make sense.
“Broke Ass Hoes” further shows Dilip’s range. It brings the pace down with a slowed, pitched-up vocal sample — a beat that Zelooperz just glides on. “I Mac” further cements the duo’s versatility, as Zelooperz switches lanes to cloud rap over a breakbeat. “Shrooms” is a testament to the experimentation of the project, as the listener goes above the clouds while energy skyrockets and Zelooperz raps with Danny Brown-esque vocals. All of the songs are distinct, as if Zelooperz is flaunting how it doesn’t matter what the beat is — Zelooperz will fit.
The following track introduces a slew of slower-paced strings to the album, a newer addition to the album’s fantastic production. “Take Me Im Drugs” completely flips the sound of its predecessor. The song fades into “Lebanon James,” a defibrillator song that sparks energy back into the project. The song builds off a Pharrell Williams-like four count and has Zelooperz repeatedly boasting, “I go giant, Andre / I go Lebanon James.” It’s funny, boisterous and further demonstrates Zelooperz’s ability to have fun no matter what lane the listener finds him in. Eric André (“The Eric André Show”), in “Beetlejuice” fashion, rides this lane to the end when he comes on the outro after his name’s third mention to tell the listener, “If you don’t like ZelooperZ, you’re a fucking asshole.”
“Art of Seduction” slows it down again — it’s reminiscent of the first two songs of the album. It’s an easy listen and a much-needed breath of fresh air from the energy of the prior songs. The final track, “Play W Your Pride” has all the components of a rap classic — lively lyrics, a soul-filled vocal sample and a refreshing instrumental backing — and is a fantastic exit to the vast sonic world created by the album.
Dali Aint Dead was a trip. That was the point. The project takes the listener on a modern rap whirlwind through the sounds of a genre, proving that the genre needs innovation by being that innovation. That is where the surrealism lives. Zelooperz and Dilip take the listener through the diverse peaks of the sound of rap now, all on one project — and they make it look effortless. The album doesn’t have consistent instrumentation or one dominant style — it mashes together everything that’s working in rap right now, in turn bringing life to a genre by merging the sounds that are working. That’s what’s surreal. The title and the album art had it from the start — Dali Aint Dead, he’s right here.
Senior Arts Editor Nickolas Holcomb can be reached at nickholc@umich.edu.
