The Witzard

South Philly rapper-producer and one half of Career Crooks , Zilla Rocca has returned with his first proper solo release of 2018, "99 Triple 5 Soul Flow." Zilla is not only, part of Career Crooks with producer buddy Small Professor , but also, runs with his own crews, The Shadowboxers —formerly, The 5 O'Clock Shadow Boxers —and Wrecking Crew with fellow emcees Curly Castro & PremRock , along with Small Pro . Zilla Rocca additionally, runs his own Philly -based label, Three Dollar Pistol Music , is co-creator of @rapbooklets' Instagram , and fancies himself a " Noir-Hop originator and corrupt novelist." "99 Triple 5 Soul Flow" is of course, a reference to infamous 1990's Hip-Hop clothing brand Triple 5 Soul and is the sequel to last year's similarly-minded "98 Avirex Flow;" a stand-alone single with sonic ties to Zilla Rocca 's upcoming '96 Mentality , which was produced by Disco Vietnam AKA @SupernovaLox ...

"I used to watch Run-D.M.C. videos on my grandmother's TV in South Philly; then, I had to hide Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg CD's from my parents when I was 10-years-old. I used to make Rap tapes on my dad's stereo system. I would record every episode of BET's Rap City in high school on VHS. In college, I started my first Rap group. After college, I started my own Indie Rap label. Today, my first album released on a record label is out. And I can't believe it!" Zilla Rocca ecstatically wrote within a Friday afternoon Facebook post. Friday, May 19th was the release day for the seasoned South Philly rapper-producer and remixer's major label "debut," Good Luck with That on Toronto-based Indie Hip-Hop label URBNET. Zilla recently formed Career Crooks with his long-time friend and partner-in-crime Small Professor (Small Pro) and ahead of Good Luck with That, they released two hard-as-nails pre-album collections: last year's Sin Will Find You: The C...

I'm currently working on ironing out the fine details for a premier of a Zilla Rocca remix of CURTA's "Rap Trope Questionnaire" (or CURTA ZR remix), which should be making its digital debut here at The Witzard shortly. While emailing back and forth with Zilla, Jake & Brent, Zilla nonchalantly mentioned he had a track on a compilation released by "the guys from this label I rocked with for a while, World Around Records;" said compilation was uploaded just one day prior on Valentine's Day and was fittingly titled, We Are World Around Vol. 6. Zilla further detailed that "World Around was based out of New England and put out some good, spacey East Coast Art-House records over the years, if you're not familiar with them" within his initial email. As a matter of fact, the deeper I dug into We Are World Around Vol. 6 (WAWA V6, for short), I realized that while I hadn't previously heard of the label, I previously had worked with a number ...

I'll keep this intro rather short and sweet, as this one's pretty self-explanatory and cut and dry... while watching the Atlanta Falcons honorable attempt at a Super Bowl LI Champion trophy last night, I saw this rather intriguing @2DopeBoyz-premiered DJ Manipulator (@dustymanip) mix prop up within my Twitter timeline. Its Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters Head Hunters re-appropriating cover artwork is the first thing that caught my eye (I've been obsessed with "Watermelon Man" ever since RS500 ). After a brief, yet highly informative listen, I decided to write a quick email to the self-proclaimed "DJ/Producer/NERD Contact'"s Twitter -listed email contact, which ended up being his manager, Derek "Kas" Kastal . Long story short... Kas quickly got me in touch with DJ Manipulator himself and we decided the best form of "attack" might be some sort of playlist of "Jazz Is Everything" mix breakdown; by around 1:0...

"I was re-watching old Mad Men episodes and I heard Don Draper say "we're the creatives—just the least important most important thing there is." And I immediately went into the studio and freestyled the first verse over that beat 'cause I was so inspired by that line... to give you more insight, I'm not a freestyle type of recording artist; usually, all of my stuff is written, then re-written, then edited, and then finalized when I record it. I picked out that beat from Small [Professor] is his apartment during a snow storm. He pitched it first to a very [well-known] rapper, who passed on it, and I snatched it up immediately," South Philly -based emcee and @RapBooklets curator Zilla Rocca wrote within a recent emailed conversation. Rocca and the self-proclaimed " smallest professor that you've seen thus far" have been friends and collaborators since 2008 and South Philly neighbors for the past 4-5 years; they're previously relea...