Steve 'Flash' JuonIsaiah Loubeau’s life story is pretty wild. He and Denzel Curry were high school classmates, but it wasn’t until a chance meeting between the two when Zay was working at Cheesecake Factory that Zay was encouraged by Curry to pursue a rap career. After three years of making and releasing his music on SoundCloud, a producer named Lord Lu C N heard his songs and decided to refer him to Curry, apparently not knowing the two already knew each other. Curry took Zay under his wing, put him on his album, and even put him on tour with him. Life changing shit.
At the moment he should have been peaking, the coronavirus pandemic changed both how tours are done and albums are recorded, grinding his hustle to a halt along with the rest of us. As things slowly started to open up again 2021 he got into a nearly fatal accident that gave him amnesia and rendered him unable to walk for nine months. For Zay to still be here walking and talking let alone rapping and releasing albums like “VIP” has to be considered a medical miracle. Respect to Zay for overcoming so much adversity in such a short amount of time.
How do I describe his music though? Well as you may have already guessed by him being friends and classmates with Curry he’s Floridian, but like Curry you wouldn’t know it from his style. In fact when I heard Zay I was strongly reminded of drill and grime. Almost all of this album was produced by London’s Kwes Darko, and to say all London emcees are making songs like “Tick Tock” would be a lie… but let’s go with 70%? The deep bass hits, the intentionally dirty filter on the vocals, the creeping feeling of anxiety welling up with every second, check check and check.
His personality really shines when there’s a guest star on the track, like Kenny Mason on “Lil Jit.” It seems to give him extra motivation to make sure people still recognize that he’s the star of the show no matter who he’s rocking with at that moment.
“I’m a misfit, bands got me addicted
Yo’ bitch on my hit list, pull up actin ign’ant
Only fuckin way to bliss, always on my pivot
They talk shit on internet, see me I get crickets”
In 14 tracks spread out over 32 minutes (meaning a lot of short songs) “VIP” is a dark, intense ride. A few big names show up like A$AP Rocky and JPEGMAFIA but they never change the focus of this story. At times it’s funny or fun loving, such as the big shit talking and big bass drops of “Villain.” At times it borders on bipolar paranoia on songs like “The Weak” when he says things like “In life why even feel, when people all die?/I know they gon’ clap, and laugh for my demise.” Nah bro, we’re happy you made it and you’re doing big things. Well — except your haters. Nobody successful doesn’t have a few. While I’m trying to be clear that I’m not one, Zay is pretty INTENSE most of the time. The beats and the rhymes are not complacent on this album. If you’re listening on headphones your cranium will rattle, and if you’re in your car, you’ll feel it with your whole chest. It’s good but sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming. Fair warning.