Author: Staff Writers

Interview: Zilla Rocca on his new album, ‘Vegas Vic’, out this Friday

We chat to emcee and producer Zilla Rocca about his new album out this Friday, Vegas Vic, how it feels to be back on stage, the Wrecking Crew and more. 

Vegas Vic is out this Friday. Tell us what we can expect.

It’s my first solo album is close to 2 years and I wanted to tap into some Ghostface energy with this one, specifically “Ironman” which is my favorite album of all time. I wanted to make it very insular with guests and have alot of vibrant colors and more energy with the beats and rhymes. I’ve been collaborating with Chong Wizard, Ray West, Small Professor, and Wrecking Crew the last couple of years, so “Vegas Vic” was my chance to be in control solely again and trust my instincts to find the styles and sounds I needed.

The album has self-produced tracks, and production from Small Pro, as is typical of your projects. But there’s also a lot of production by Disco Vietnam. It’s arguably a different sound for you. How did you guys get together?

Barry aka Disco Vietnam and I have been friends for over 10 years. He’s been to most of my shows in NYC for the last decade and would always give good pointers and notes. He suddenly became a monster at making beats the last couple of years after taking time off, and he would send me damn near every beat he was making. They were all FIRE. So he ended up doing “Favors are Bad News” with Armand Hammer off “Future Future Rapper” and 2 joints off “96 Mentality” that set off that record. My inbox just kept piling up with heaters from him so we decided based on our relationship and my trust in him that he should oversee the entire album. It reminds me of how RZA was heavily involved in “Supreme Clientele” even though he didn’t produce the whole album. You need someone with a vision for you that highlights your strengths. That’s what Barry brought to “Vegas Vic”.

We’ve talked in previous interviews about how you write very intricate, literary lyrics. PremRock has a similar writing style, and has talked about how working in a bar gives him great material. Other than movies and novels, what inspires your writing and the kind of characters you write about?

I’m at a point now being a dad where I don’t interact with as many characters any more. But maturing has given me more solitude to recall the 30 years of wild stories, memories, rumors, and myths I experienced living in Philly my whole life. It’s like being a record collector and just going back into your collection for a while rather than buying new pieces each week. Most lines and stories on “Vegas Vic” are things that just emerged in the process of writing lyrics, whereas in the past I would deliberately set out to tell a specific story based on something I had read, or saw, or heard about. I’m more instinctive now which is more fun – you discover these thoughts and people coming up like hot air balloons across the sky in the writing process rather than cultivating it from the dirt up.

You and the Wrecking Crew returned to the live stage recently. What did that feel like after so much time?

It felt oddly normal. None of us had ever gone that long without performing going back to the beginning of our perspective careers. I’ve been having fun on Instagram Live playing music, and doing demo sessions on Zoom with our Patreon subscribers for Call Out Culture, and it still doesn’t compare to watching people in a crowd at a venue react to music. The digital space is great for connective with people around the world at the same time, but you’re still sitting in your house and they are sitting in theirs. Having to get up and spend time and money to actually go see people perform is a true privilege.

Speaking of the Wrecking Crew, the Steel’s Kitchen compilation dropped last month. Tell us about that.
I think 2020 is when we finally began mattering to people, and that started with the ShrapKnel album. It progressed with BluU Edwards from Castro and Small Pro. My projects with Ray West, Pecue and Chong Wizard added to the mix, on top of our merch game and our last compilation “Raheem’s Lament”. And then doing a weekly podcast promoting it all, plus our best buds…it’s been a blast to now make a new compilation that people want in advance. DMX truly inspired “Steel’s Kitchen” – before he passed, we thought of those Ruff Ryder compilations and how much they meant to us. They were loaded with real songs, big hits, and match-ups of artists in and out of Ruff Ryders that were fire! So we decided to make our version of “Ryde or Die”, “Soundbombing”, “Def Jux Presents” etc to pool all of these people together. Having Cargo Cults next to ShrapKnel – that really wouldn’t happen anywhere else. Bringing Fatboi Sharif, DOOF, and Stan Ipcus on a CD – again, I don’t know how else to combine those styles unless we crafted “Steel’s Kitchen”.
With your own albums, Wrecking Crew projects, and features, you put out new music fairly regularly. I’m guessing there’s more on the way for the remainder of 2021?
We’re always working and writing stuff – the next big thing is an actual Wrecking Crew album that Prem, Castro and I are piecing together currently. That will drop next years. For 2021, we’ll be lucky enough to have solo LPs from us three; Castro will be dropping in September on Backwoodz and Prem is wowing folks worldwide with “Load Bearing Crow’s Feet” at the moment. Small Pro are planning on dropping our 2nd album “Never at Peace” as Career Crooks in the winter too. And there might possibly be another Cargo Cults album this year if ALASKA goes on a writing bender to my beats. Either way, I’m grateful our names mean something to people now where we feel confident to release this amount of music and have great responses.
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Vegas Vic is out this Friday, July 30. Get it via Chong Wizard Records. Follow Zilla Rocca on Spotify, Twitter and Instagram. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.