Zilla and Sos are not going to preach at you, dispensing answers from a pulpit; they’re going to smack you in the face with the questions.Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now. “It’s a natural progression,” Zilla says of what he and Sos have learned from one another on the creative front. “We’re not trying to shock you, we’re just trying to show you what we see everyday”, says ZillaKami of City Morgue. City Morgue is an American hip hop duo from New York City. If you aren’t inundated with underground Hip Hop you might not have heard of As of the publication of this article; their first World Star Hip Hop premiere “Shinners 13” has racked up 3.1 million views.The video has shown a music outfit with the potential to have longevity in a music climate that favors short-term virality. City Morgue challenges conventional ideas: about what rap can sound like in 2020, the way music can cut across lines of race and background, which images and ideas are considered offensive in a country that shows a cruel disregard for so many of its citizens. Sos’ raps are littered with references to the kinds of neighborhood activities that landed him behind bars—but which are sometimes the only economic options for people from his block.

I was just doing other shit.” That might sound coy, but it gets at the current that runs underneath City Morgue’s music: this is a group that is the product of kids growing up in vastly different, though similarly trying circumstances, filtering this hardship through the cultural instruments that were available to them, doing whatever was necessary to survive.For a pair that had grown up gravitating toward Eminem and Slipknot, respectively, Sos and Zilla found they had an easy chemistry in the studio. (Speaking of YouTube, they also reflect the current online struggle in that some of their more provocative clips have been removed from the service. “Anything we catch a vibe to, that’s the song,” Sos says. Its members are Junius 'ZillaKami' Rogers from Bay Shore and Vinicius ‘SosMula’ Sosa from Harlem, including their producer Sami 'THRAXX' Nehari. They’re also wound tightly; while Sos and Mula have different backgrounds as music fans, each brings to his recorded material an eager verbosity, packing verses with carefully-timed syllables. “I already knew I was gonna fuck with him off the come home,” Zilla says of Sos, adding that he expected they would develop a social bond when Sos got home. City Morgue is definitely one of the most promising and exciting acts in Hip Hop right now.City Morgue Volume 1: Hell or High Water is the first glimpse of a metal rap sound that is palatable to a mainstream audience and yet remains as cutting edge as it started. “I was a good kid, you know what I’m saying,” says Sos, “I wasn’t a bad person.

Where the strains of hip-hop that have grown out of the Auto-Tuned Atlanta scene and the punkish one birthed on SoundCloud are less jagged and value negative space, City Morgue songs are serrated, nearly growling. Their debut album Hell Or High Water released on October 12, 2018. Its music video currently rests just above the 10-million mark, and is included on their 2018 mixtape, As things stand right now, Sos and Zilla have a chance to join the rich lineage of aggressive, counter-cultural rap acts that capture the independent spirit of early rap and translate it for a broad audience. And Zilla’s are the product of a suburban neighborhood where “a lot of young White kids and their parents using really deadly drugs like heroin,” says Mel Carter, the Senior VP of A&R at Republic Records, where City Morgue signed in 2018.

The era of bubblegum trap is finally coming to end and I couldn’t be more happy about it. Zilla and Sos are both uniquely attuned to the kinds of phrasing and syntax that cut through the social media din; they understand what sorts of jarring images stand out from the crowded YouTube algorithm. These two are like Hydrogen and Oxygen; their chemistry brings this sound to life.

But the combined energies of the two rappers is anything but a natural fit in today’s rap landscape. By submitting this form, you agree to the Universal Music Group Privacy Policy. The water level is rising and the tsunami is about the make landfall with City Morgue surfing the wave like a couple of professionals.What’s next? City Morgue Volume 1: Hell or High Water is the first glimpse of a metal rap sound that is palatable to a mainstream audience and yet remains as cutting edge as it started. [3] There is no holding back just well-produced, well thought out rage-raps that will put a hole in the wall if it’s loud enough. But they quickly struck up a relationship that went beyond welcome-back daps and house parties. While all of these songs do hit hard; the singles released before the project are definitely still the strongest on the project.Since they formed, SosMula has definitely gotten the short-end of the stick.

When Sos was locked up on a 15-month bid following a house raid in 2015 (he says the police found “like 50 grams of crack,” along with various other contraband), he often called his friend Righteous P on the phone; P is Zilla’s older brother. 1 : HELL OR HIGH WATER HIKARI ULTRA video remix by illview follow us on IG: @illview City Morgue chops it up with XXL for the Spring 2020 issue. However, this project showcases some of Mula’s most incredible verses to date proving to us that he’s not going anywhere.

ZillaKami x SosMula Produced by Thraxx CITY MORGUE VOL. One of the most bracing, provocative acts in hip-hop is a two-man wrecking crew known as It’s tempting to talk about City Morgue as a phenomenon of the internet, and the group does indeed reflect many of the realities of an online existence. Here, the group talks about their upbringing, combining rap and rock to create their music and more. This is just Volume 1 and all of the original singles are on the tape which means it’s This new wave of metal rap is finding itself and this is the testament to that fact.