Florida’s prodigal son has returned in dramatic fashion to grab the throne and put on for Carroll City

For years the city of Miami has been looking for its rap champion. The glorious days of Trick Daddy and Trina came to an end some time ago when their crown was taken by Rick Ross. The decline of the “Port of Miami” rapper left the throne for the taking with no obvious heir. Charges and jail time made it difficult for the city to crown rappers like Bobby Shmurda, Kodak Black, or even the late XXXTentacion as their unanimous figurehead while a lack of mainstream success kept rappers like SpaceGhostPurrp or any other member of Raider Klan from seizing the position. That is until 2019, when Raider Klan standout Denzel Curry snatched the crown, accepted the responsibility, and promised to never look back.

Denzel has been quietly putting on for Miami (specifically Carroll City) for years as a solo artist and a member of the talented collective started by SpaceGhostPurrp, Raider Klan. Things really begin to heat up for Denzel upon the drop of his sophomore album Imperial which featured Joey Bada$$ and Miami legend Rick Ross. After the album’s release he was selected to be a member of XXL’s 2016 freshman class, a list that would soon lose all credibility but at the time was still a prideful achievement. After Imperial Denzel took two years off to craft what would be his fantastic 2018 release, TA13OO. The album received massive amounts of support and acclaim from fans and critics alike and sits utop many year-end lists including ours.

While TA13OO was a creative masterpiece and the most ambitious project Denzel ever released, it didn’t sound like Miami. Denzel realized that to be considered one of the greats he would need to first acquire unconditional love and support from his hometown like all legends had before him. He took to twitter to let us know that this was his aim with his newest album ZUU which is an nickname for Carol City, the area of Miami Denzel grew up in. The rollout for ZUU was quick and clean and presented us with two excellent, excitement-building singles, “RICKY” and “SPEEDBOAT”. ZUU arrived May 31st via Loma Vista Records with a runtime of 29 minutes and six features, all of which are heavily tied to the city of Miami.

The album’s title-track “ZUU” is a perfect intro that grabs your attention and refuses to let you play anything else until the album is completed in its entirety. The song is shocking yet catchy with a fascinating woodwinds layer on the hook that makes this cut absolutely addicting.

The end of “ZUU” contains a short skit which ushers us into the albums lead single “RICKY” which is an ode to Denzel’s father. This cut will be the the pump-up song of Summer ‘19 and the accompanying music video just adds to the cinematographic element of this bop.

“BIRDZ” featuring Rick Ross is the fourth cut on this album and my early favorite. It is on “BIRDZ” where Denzel truly claims this album for Miami (Let's start it over/Eye of Jehovah/Come take a look at my city and its culture). The two already-legendary Florida emcees take us for a tour of the magic city over a rattling beat from FnZ on this hard-hitting track.

The album refuses to slow down with the next song “AUTOMATIC” produced by super-producer Tay Keith. The song gets harder and harder the deeper we go with Zel’s second verse being one of the best on the album. The verse shows the Miami rapper discarding fake love and shouting out his day ones whose names should be very familiar if you are a fan of Denzel’s music (You ain't Shane, you ain't Mook/You ain't gang, you ain't crew/See my ways hella strange 'cause I'm raised in the Zuu).

If “BIRDZ” is the track where Dezel claims ZUU for his city, “CAROLMART” is the track where he claims his city for himself (A real-ass nigga from the 305/I was raised off of Trina, Trick, Rick, and Plies). The song is a banger and could inspire an eskimo to research plane tickets to Miami.

The next song “SHAKE 88” is a club anthem and will be inescapable in months to come for obvious reasons. The song is catchy as hell and my Twitter feed has already been flooded with “SHAKE 88” twerk videos.

The album concludes with a radio skit “BLACKLAND 66.6” (a nod to SpaceGhostPurrp who had a mixtape of the same name) which ushers us into the most sinister song on the album. “P.A.T” (which stands for Project and Turmoil) is dedicated to Project Pat (the founder of Three 6 Mafia) and is overtly reminiciant of Zel’s earliest music with Raider Klan. The song is dark, grinding, and hard as hell.

Coming off his most conceptual album to date, many wondered what direction Denzel would head next. The answer to that was obvious to Curry: he would go home. With ZUU Denzel tastefully simplified his music showing us that sometimes the obvious answer can be the best answer with proper execution. ZUU is a short album with no skippable tracks. It’s abrasive and in-your-face without being inaccessible for less intense fans thanks to cuts like “WISH” and “SHAKE 88”. All-in-all, Denzel made an excellent career decision and the result is a Miami masterpiece.