Steve 'Flash' Juon“Niggaz wanna be street ’til they stuck in the street”
I’m sure the Las Vegas rapper knows whereof he speaks on “Collateral Damage.” How do I know he’s from Vegas? His own Fandom page says so. Obvious conclusions — he either wants to make it so bad that he made one for himself, or he has enough fans that someone made a Wiki on his behalf. I don’t think the latter is out of the question. Now it’s possible that he’s exaggerating on Instagram, but with only five posts in total he’s certainly not the typical rapper obsessed with flexing a false image for social media clout, so I’ll actually take the number of streams he lists at face value. He also has a cleaner lyrical delivery and self-produced beats than most rappers I listen to for the first time. While the topics of “Smoke Niggaz” may not be any different or more advanced than your typical Chicago or NY drill artist, it’s also not LESS advanced. I can feel the flow and the bass hits nicely. “Light your ass up like a stoner.” Again, taking him entirely at his word on that one. He sounds convincing and he’s in and out on the song in only 97 seconds, so he doesn’t have to fight the length to get his message across.
So far I’ve only given you the good news. What’s the bad news? On songs like “Murdock” the tropes are just a little too cliche. He’s laser focused on the people around him being fake, and how he’ll respond to anyone who tries to perpetrate if their in his vicinity, but as Digital Underground said long ago it’s the same song all around the world. “Auto Pistol” is more impressive just for the high speed that Zotiyac can fire off his bars in the booth but here too the topics are as predictable as you’d expect if you have any familiarity with the genre. The brother could give Twista a run for his money, you can’t deny him that.
This leaves me in a murky position on “Collateral Damage.” Zotiyac has excellent breath control, his vocal tone is pleasing, and he achieves the rarefied air of self-production that enhances his product rather than impeding it. When I say he should have enough fans for someone to make a page for him, I mean it, because he’s good at his craft. And yet… where are we going with this? If he’s already at this level is the trajectory upward from here, stationary, or was this the peak? If he gets one song that can go viral on social media that’s all it will take, but if he doesn’t get that he’s going to be one of thousands of rappers with the same things to say. He says it better than most do but I don’t know if that’s enough.