Zoocci Coke Dope is one of South Africa’s most esteemed beat makers and producers from the new school. Beyond that, he is an all-round artist. Zoocci falls out of the typical beat makers that you wish would just be satisfied with making beats and stay away from rapping. One of the rare examples of beat makers that actually rap pretty well.
Having started with just making beats, Zoocci came onto the main stream by killing hooks. When he showed he can rap and do it well, it came as an appreciated extra. With a long history of full projects, Zoocci adds to his discography with his new release, Anxiety.
It’s always questionable whether a rapper genuinely wants to tackle mental health issues or just wants to ride the wave. It’s more believable if there are more subtle traces of his spread out through the lyrics. And that is the case with Anxiety. Zoocci Coke Dope pours his heart out on the 13 tracks that make up this project.
The title track comes in first. The beat has somewhat of a psycho melody on the loop. Something reminiscent of those old Westerns. Not sure what the idea was behind panning the melody to the left. He might have been going for a surround sound effect. It’s hard to miss on headphones. Zoocci Coke Dope does what might be his best rapping yet on there. A great start.
It’s one of the things that are consistent on the album; Zoocci has grown within his style of music. The raps are better, the beats are better too. The content however, might have stagnated. Which brings the analysis down to whether the music is good or not. And also how creative he can get within his area.
That’s an easy one to check for. Zoocci has a musical approach with his songs. His beats aren’t just repetitive loops of the same pattern. On the mic he incorporates signing and blends it well with rapping. He does a good display of this on Silence which features Flame. On Cherub, he switches from angelic singing to dropping some dope raps like it’s nothing. Possibly the best rapping on the album.
Going toe-to-toe with Nasty C on Oath shows the improvement in Zoocci’s rapping. He fares pretty well against all the other rappers feature. What makes the raps good isn’t as much of a witty play on words but more thought-provoking lines and philosophies. On Insecure, there’s a line that goes “Loving you was proof that I don’t love myself”. Zoocci does a good job of capturing emotions and capturing his reflections on a song. He is the king of heartbreak music in SA. Lines like “Life’s been moving so fast, outta my control” make him relatable.
Zoocci scores points for being fluid with his flow. He lets the beat guide how he flow and by doing that, he is not limited in how he sounds. His cadence on Not That Deep is case in point.
A trap sound dominates the album throughout. Expect a thumping bass and 808. But instead of synthetic high pitch strings, you get richer incorporation of elements that have just the right type of emotion for what he has to say, like piano keys. Youngsta CPT is featured on Narcissism
which has melodies from an acoustic guitar.
The album comes to a close with State Of Mind IV. Adding to his Current State Of Mind series. If you take this in the context that Zoocci gives us a snapshot of what’s on his mind with each of these, it’s kinda sad that he is still going through the motions of being done dirty by a love interest. It’s good music nonetheless. On theme with the rest of the album. His music is his therapy.
There’s no question, this is good music with a good quality finish to it. And that’s credit to Zoocci Coke Dope for his attention to detail on each track. It has replay value if you want to embrace feeling low. But won’t help so much in improving your mood. It is, however, a safe project from Zoocci.
