According to the dictionary the word zero is a numerical symbol that represents the absolute absence of any quantity or magnitude. It is the lowest possible point or degree, nothing, zilch, nada, nil. Over the years the word zero has come to represent the average brother struggling to survive in the wake of devastating poverty and institutional racism that has regulate young Black men to the bottom of America’s socio-economic latter; hence the reason why Houston native and Rap-A-Lot latest rap sensation Z-Ro choose the numerical symbol for his stage moniker.

The place where Z-Ro came from was nowhere near nice. Born Joseph Wayne McVeigh in Houston’s infamous South Park area, the 28 year old rap sensation was shuttled from household to household, in search of stability. But that stability would be even harder to find when at age six Z-Ro’s mother died, forcing him to come to grips with pain at an early age.

Z-Ro’s credentials as a one of Houston’s superstar rapper can’t be denied. In addition to rolling with Rap-a-Lot records, Z-Ro’s pedigree includes being a member of DJ Screw’s legendary MCs the Screwed Up Click. He is also a member of the underground group Guerilla Maab and has released over 13 underground albums. Among some of the more popular ones includes Look What You Did to Me, Z-Ro Vs. the World and King of the Ghetto.   

In 2004, Z-Ro released his critically acclaimed Rap-a-Lot debut called The Life and Times of Joseph McVeigh. The record was a huge success and helped expand Z-Ro’s massive fan base beyond the Deep South. Now with his latest album Let the Truth be Told Z-Ro is poised to take the world by storm. By sticking to what he calls “the G-Code” Z-Ro is telling the world what it’s really like in the streets of the slums and ghettos across America and letting the chips fall where they may. It is this audacious attitude along with his humility that makes Z-Ro potentially one of the most important voices to come out H-Town since the Geto Boys. Recently The Hole Caught Up with Z-Ro and here’s what he had to say.

Down-South.com: What was it like growing up in South Park?

Z-Ro: Shit man, to tell you the truth I ain’t get to stay out there too long man. I migrated a lot as a younger with my folks. I stayed in South Park until I was about four years old. Then I moved to Hinds Park. I stayed in Hinds Park until I was about middle school age. My old lady passed when I was like six years old so I household to household for a minute. I didn’t really get to stable. I moved from South Park to Hinds Park until right after my mama died I moved over to the east side of town, Edgebrooke and Monroe—that’s when shit started to get real. A nigga started experiencing gun shots, stab wounds  and all that other type of shit….al the shit that comes with being grown. My shit ain’t no different from the average nigga in this area in his late 20s. I ain’t no different from the nigga living next door. I was out there. A nigga couldn’t get no job and shit so I fuck with the dope for a little while. I went from selling the weed to dope to the beef shit to what done came after that. It’s just now getting a little greater for a nigga, but I ain’t that far away from going back outside. You know it cost to live so a nigga gotta keep getting it.

Down-South.com: Who did you listen to coming up?

Z-Ro: Man, I listen to almost every rapper alive. Of course I listened to Pac, that’s like the first rule to the game. I know when I was coming up doing my thing I remember vividly I used to wake up like about 5:30 in the morning. I used to used to let the muthafucking fiends know by putting a pair of Chucks across my burglar bars. That meant come on with it, the store’s open. I used to walk back and forth from my Kitchen chopping up dope listening to Scarface’s The World Is Mine, The Geto Boys’s “Six Feet Deep,” that old school Willie D solo album, Street Military, Klondike Kat, K-Rino….shit like that. You know shit that had four or five ass whipping in a song. I’m listening to that shit while I’m hustling. That’s giving and motivation to hustle harder. When Scareface come singing “Mr. Mr. Scarface was walking down the block with a pocket full of rocks” and I’m walking down the block with a pocket full of rocks for real. I really connected to that because I’m listening to another nigga spit about something that I was really doing; from that, I started getting love for the rap game. To make a long story short I wasn’t listening to no nice shit. 

Down-South.com: How did you start rapping?

Z-Ro: Well, you know I wasn’t really no radio nigga, but every now and then the radio would come on and they’d be playing a rap instrumental in background when the DJ started to talk and I found myself starting to say a little rhyme to the beat in background. After a while I said fuck that. I think I sound good as them nigga so I think that I’m going to try and fuck with it. That shit just derived from there. It started from me just being on the block hustling to me doing the shit as a past time to me trying to make it to me developing a real skill for myself.

Down-South.com: When did you decide to leave the block and go after a rap career full time?

Z-Ro: Well, shit I’d say I decided about my 11^th grade year. That was in 93, I decided man, I fixing to try to do something for real. I really thought back then that I really had something that the game was missing. So I said that I was gonna try and do my shit for real. I started out in different studios. I played with the shit for about four to five years until the first muthafuckas that I stumbled up on –one of those cats on the Northside. I ain’t gonna say they name because I ain’t gonna try to blow they ass up because they a bunch of mark ass muthafuckas. But….you know…I got with them and my shit sounded alright, but it wasn’t industry standard. All of they shit was analog so it was like the quality of the song wasn’t good enough to sell the album. It was like a Casio keyboard or something. So time went on…I was writing and stacking up my shit. You know like making my own little personal library of songs and shit. You know for when I found the right muthafucka to do my shit. In 96, I met this cat on accident. He was coming to the studio and he was trying to get his artist vinyl pressed up by the cat I was dealing with. He walked in while I was in the front room rolling a blunt and freestyling and shit. He was like damn, nigga you can rap. I was like man I know that. And one thing led to another and that lead to my freshman release. My first album was called Look What You Done to Me on Fisherboy Entertainment. Like me and everybody else I used to deal with me and that boy ain’t cool no more but that’s alright.

Down-South.com: Tell us about King of the Ghetto?

Z-Ro: King of the Ghetto was my third album ….Naw it was Look What You Done to Me, Z-Ro Vs the World then the first Guerilla Maab album then came King of the Ghetto album so it was my 4^th album and shit. The King of the Ghetto album came around 1998…99 right around the start of the millennium. That when the South was really beginning to get recognition for what we were doing.

Yeah that King of the Ghetto was what I called my first grown man album right there. I had three rap project before that but that was my first grown man project where I actually put some grown man shit on every song. It was depressing on some parts, it was painful on some parts, but I was shedding light on my life.

Down-South.com: Pain seems to be a major theme in all of your work.

Z-Ro: Everybody might not have 22s on a fancy car, but one thing that everybody’s gonna have at some point in their lives is pain. Everybody done felt some kinda pain at some point in their lives, but everybody’s scared to talk about it. Me I’m gonna blow it up. The only difference between them and me is that I’m bold enough to let the world see my pain.

Down-South.com: What’s the name of the new album?

Z-Ro: The album is entitled Let the Truth Be Told because it time for the truth to be told. Muthafuckas be sugarcoating shit because they don’t wanna hurt nobody’s feelings. Fuck that! I’m steepin’ on toes and all that shit. If a muthafucka mad at me they can come see me. I ain’t in the house hiding. I’m the streets everyday. I’m still in the hood everyday. I’m gonna let the truth be told on faggot-ass police. I’m let the truth be told on these faggot-ass CEOs of these record labels, I let the truth be told on these faggot-ass niggas in the street, I’m letting the truth be told on these rappers –that’s one thing about me is I tell like it is. You can call me a label muthafucka because I put labels on muthafuckas. It’s a lotta muthafuckas rapping from the 3^rd person man. They just there to talk about shit in general. Me, I’m gonna talk about some particular shit or some particular muthafuckas. If I feel like a muthafucka’s being less than a G then I’m gonna say it on my shit. That’s why I called it Let The Truth be Told. 

by: Charlie Braxton © Down-South.com