What’s ZAG listening to?

By: Edgar Vega

What song do you currently have on repeat and why do you like it?
I have this album that I'm listening to at the moment. It's Drogas Wave by Lupe Fiasco, which was released last September. The first half of the album tells a story of slaves during the transatlantic slave trade whom were on board of a sinking slave ship. Instead of drowning, they grew gills and are able to breathe and live underwater. They were called Longchains. Armed with long chains for arms, hence their name, they proceeded to drown other slave ships to free their people from slavery. Some decided to run back to Africa's shores, while others are supposedly present to this day in the middle of the Atlantic, guarding the waters. The second half of the album relates to current life of African Americans in this country, as a sequel 400 years later to the first part of the album.

The reason I'm in love with this album and consider it my favorite, is not only because of what I said earlier, but also because of the complexity of Lupe's lyrics and how he could tell a story so vivid only though words. I can proceed to visualize in my head what he's saying. Also, every time I listen to the album, I discover something totally new in what he's saying; and that's the beauty of Hip-Hop poetry.

How would you describe your music preference in general? What qualities make a song truly great?
My music preference in terms of Hip-Hop, I'd say I like Boom Bap and Lo-Fi, or anything that is sample based. Yeah, I listen to the occasional Young Thug when I'm tryna turn up, but for the most part my favorite artists are the J Coles, Kendrick Lamars, and the Black Thoughts. I've also been lately into R&B after listening to some of SiR's stuff and that new Anderson.Paak joint, Oxnard.

How does the music you listen to affect the music you make?
Lately, I've been drawing a lot of my inspiration from J Dilla and Lupe Fiasco. With Lupe, his lyricism motives me to up mine. I'm mesmerized by his worldplay, and I always aim to be more lyrical, while not reaching a point where people won't understand what I'm saying. Because what's the point of using complex worldplay if no one will be able to understand it, right? As for Dilla, his instrumentals don't need words for me to understand what he's saying. It's like his beats teach me how to vibe with the listener, and that I don't always need to be explicit with my message for people to understand what I'm saying.