The mane who be singing like he got the blues. The brother with the hardest hooks that make the news. Z-ro the hip hop Houstonian, who arguably could be one of the greatest slept on artist in the world, appearing on songs with artist like Scarface, Gucci Mane, Bun B, and Pimp C. Has a catalog of albums for years to come and go. Who is this prolific writer ? Why does his brutally honest music drag you in the way it does ? Does he not like anyone at all and why doesn’t the whole world have him on their playlist ?
Sometimes going by the name Joseph Wayne Mcvey Ⅳ but better known as Z-Ro the Mo city don, is a hometown hero born on January 19, 1977 in Houstons South Park. From the age of 6, Z-ro’s mother passed away which was a traumatic experience from the get go, along with not being around his father. Z-ro was moved around from home to home finally ending up around the suburb of Missouri City. Once getting a little older to his late teens, Z-ro turned to drug dealing and crime to provide a little income while at the same time being in the church, a walking paradox. After a while of repeating the same crimes and process over and over, being inspired by growing in the generation of 2pac, Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, he developed a drive to climb out of the streets. Z-ro started freestyle raping and battling which is where he discovered his talent to Rap, but it wasn’t until the late Dj Screw with the group Screwed Up Click, gave Z-ro his first shot to the masses on the mic. Many of the Screw members didn’t really like Z-ro because he was rapping too fast they said, but Dj Screw saw the potential in him, therefore he stuck to his gut. Shortly after Z-Ro released his solo debut in 1998 with “Look What You Did To Me”. Categorized as Dirty South, his big break was in 2004 with his Rap-a-lot debut Lp “The life of Joseph W. Mcvey” which spreaded his name nearly world wide with the hit “I hate U B***h.” Z-ro separated himself from other artist by rapping about love, relationships, street life, and situations on both sides of the scale good and bad. Being placed in so many situations of being fucked over by his closest friends to ex girlfriends and just having a keen eye to see the flaw in humans and himself, gives Z-Ro the ability to paint the images in his songs the way he does.
Z-ro is most popularly known in his hometown Houston for his Mo city anthem which is now a Houston anthem “Mo City Don.” when you walk into a party and you hear the record table spinning followed by the woman singing sample, you can catch the crowd swanging back and forth singing
“ Slow loud and bangin, all in my trunk
Trunk full of skunk,
I aint never been a punk
I blow on skunk, I blow on doja
Military minded, im a motherfucking soldier”
Till this day you can still catch Z-ro on summer hit tracks being played on a throwback Thursday somewhere In Houston like “summertime” W/ Slim Thuggaaaa.
