Denzel Curry disappoints with his excuse of an album, ZUU. Less than a year after his brilliant and acclaimed third full-length, TA13OO, which brought him to a new audience and is already considered a trap classic by some, the South Florida rapper has dropped the innovative production, exciting flows and thought-provoking delivery in exchange for 12 mostly forgettable tracks that all sound like they’re running out the clock.
The clearest example of this is the three interludes on this 30-minute album, which, though mildly entertaining, are clearly on here to boost the thin runtime. Curry’s singing lacks the natural and soulful feel it had on his last effort, sounding like any other poorly auto-tuned SoundCloud rapper. The production is nowhere near as engaging as TA13OO’s, with some of the beats sounding like redos of his own songs. “WISH” is a poor attempt at following up “CASH MANIAC,” and “BIRDZ” sounds like it’s ripping off the first single from this album, “RICKY.”
Curry’s delivery is so painfully repetitive and disinterested, with nowhere near the uncontainable energy of his past work. The choruses are uncreative, the flows are mostly minuscule variations on the same painfully slow triplet, and his voice sounds like a school principal listing off the morning announcements, if those announcements were about Miami and ass.
This whole album was allegedly a freestyle, which I guess is some sort of excuse for such wackness. Given that, the short runtime and the fact that the lead singles are the only memorable songs on here (spare the absolutely off-the-wall closing track), it’s clear that this latest effort lacked just that; effort.
Perhaps Curry wanted to capitalize on his newfound fame, or he just wanted to relax with some less substantive songs. Either way, ZUU should’ve stayed in the vault.
Score: 🌴🌴/5
Claire Brown is a writer and a total music nerd. She has been writing for MMC since 2018.