Steve 'Flash' JuonZelooperZ was mentioned briefly in our review of Bruiser Wolf’s “My Story Got Stories.” Like Wolf he’s part of Detroit’s Bruiser Brigade family, which also has a record label of the same name, all formed by and under the auspices of Danny Brown. “Moszel Offline” came out at the height of the global pandemic, a time of great uncertainty for both musicians and the general public alike, but it doesn’t seem to have affected ZelooperZ too much. The Brigade is known for being colorful, eclectic and borderline eccentric and songs like “Only Fan (Zodiac)” reflect that.
The song’s name and clip for it both hint at the OnlyFans hustle. “Throwin that ass like a transplant/I’m tellin you niggaz its somethin to see/Ain’t nobody fuckin with you/she like ain’t nobody fuckin with me.” If you’re mad about it then you’re only mad at women exploiting their own assets for profit instead of being the one exploited by somebody else. The Bruiser Brigade can be pimpish but they sometimes celebrate women being entrepeneurs too. At other times they are so ruggedly misogynistic you can either roll with it or not fuck with it at all. “Ain’t nothin low but yo’ ho and your self-esteem/When I pull up on you and yo’ bitch, she look like a wildebeest” quips Ze on “10 a Piece.” It is what it is.
Some details about this release confuse me. One site says “Tomb” was produced by Lukrative & F1LTHY, but the video for the track says it was produced by Wod (whoever that is). I’m going to chalk this confusion up to the aforementioned pandemic, as we reached a point where people literally couldn’t talk to each other in person to iron this shit out. As for the song itself and Ze’s rap on it, the sound and the delivery remind me of acts like A$AP Mob and Flatbush Zombies. Dank music, heavy bass, braggadocious bars. “Whole lot of money, yeah the pocket full of Shrek.”
That’s not an overriding style though. Remember that I said the Bruiser Brigade are eclectics? That’s why you can get an old school throwback sound like the F1LTHY produced “Stay Longer” back to back with the previous track. While Ze’s rap about spending money and sexing honeys may be pedestrian, the sound and the charm of his delivery raise it above the average. Few people can match the charm of Danny or Wolf, but Ze is a standout among a large collective.
I’ll go out on a limb and say “Moszel Offline” isn’t Ze’s best work. The album’s title even hints at it given the first word is Ze’s middle name and “offline” implies this was the best that could be done in an era where everybody was working “online” from home. Under those constraints it’s actually pretty good. Not a classic. Not the best he or any other member of the Brigade can do. It’s aight though. It’s real rap in an era where a lot of people either imitate whatever succeeds commercially or fake their way through pitch shifting modulation to disguise a lack of shit to say. You may not agree with everything Ze says or does but it’s as real as it gets.