While everyone and their grannies are busy investing in Dogecoin and Gamestop, Cleveland rapper KingxZell is taking advantage of the music industry by investing his time, money, and talent into several different lanes of the industry. He’s a producer, rapper, and businessman. There’s no way Zell can lose in this game.
Having been hip to him for a while now thanks to the legendary Dirty Jones who linked us back in 2017, his growth is something that I love most. When we met, he had just released his second project, Fast forward to 2021 and the 24-year-old has four projects under his belt and is running his own label.
“Classic” is a word that often comes to mind with Zell’s sound. It’d be like Kanye's production and Jay-Z's penmanship and swag having a baby. KingxZell is that child. I hear a lot of different and unique rappers daily but have yet to hear someone that sounds like the Cleveland native in 2021. His production is approachable, familiar almost. Bringing you into his world sonically, he's able to pull you along while weaving a relatable story through it. “ I told my mom we gon be straight, and my pops imma be great, just keep waiting yall it takes patience these days” all over the classic sound of “For the lover in you” by Shalamar. It's hard to trust hype these days, so let's dive into his origin story to find out how he’s been chasing his dream with an ambition to match.
How has the pandemic affected your career?
Man, it slowed our process down business-wise, but it has allowed me the time and space to create more.
What are some of your inspirations and what music has been inspiring you lately?
My inspirations include my uncles, who had a group back in the day so I was always around rap. Lil Wayne is the reason I wrote my first rap. J.Cole was the first to introduce production and rap as well as the inspiration of creating a label. Russ, Nipsey Hussle, and Westside Gunn are also notable inspirations. Currently, I am listening to mostly oldies like Anita Baker, Earth Wind and Fire, Prince, Michael Jackson, Debarge, and Bill Withers. I've also been listening to a lot of Swank's new music (unreleased), who is a member of his record label.
How did your record label come about and what are your plans for the label currently?
Apocalyps was a rap group that my uncle started back in the day. He passed recently and I created Apocolyps in his honor. He always wanted me to join the rap group, so I knew the name would be fitting and it was spelled exactly like that without the E. I linked up with Hirachi and Sample who have helped me with several projects in the past, along with Swank and we came together and are making it happen. We are all learning together and that's the first step, just learning the ropes.
You started off rapping, how did you get into the production game?
Hirachi did a lot of my beats for previous tapes and he took me in and told me he wanted to teach me how to make the beats. Since then, we've been working together, and he's been teaching me. I've been getting better and now I'm producing for artists in Cleveland and producing for some big names that I can't disclose right now. I like to use samples in my work which you can hear vividly through my music. I am happy to really be doing everything in-house now within the label.
Run me through your career path up until now, how did you get here?
When I was twelve, I wrote my first rap. At 14 I wrote and recorded my first song. In 2014 I released my first project called “Unknown”, which was me really just rapping. My friend Sample and I promoted it and got laughed at for being out on the streets promoting it. It inspired me and encouraged me to go harder. I then put out a project called “1997” in which I showed more of my storytelling skills and it sparked my first buzz in the city, that's also when I met my mentor Archie Bland.
After that, I put out “Strictly 4 You” I got to connect with people more with this project. I got the opportunity to link with Hirachi and Blockhead on the production side. This project changed my life. I got to go on tour, was on the radio for the first time and one of the tracks “Puppy Love” is still my highest streaming song.
I released my most recent project “Vintage 29” when Covid hit, soon after I began to lose motivation. My uncle passed and my personal life started going downhill. I had to dig myself out of that hole and get inspired again. I began with making more beats, I got inspiration from listening to 9th Wonder, Madlib, J Dilla, Boy Wonder and Hit boy. I am currently working on an album.