By Robert Gabriel
27 years removed from Z-Ro’s debut solo album Look What You Did to Me, the Mo City Don of Houston delivers yet another devastating blow. With Wreckshop Records now in his corner, Z-Ro unleashes his second album of 2024, this one titled Call Me Rother. It’s a play on the name Luther Vandross. Z-Ro’s versatility as a singer of soulful hooks, in addition to his reputation as a cold-hearted rapper, has him instructing us to now call him Rother Vandross. A few years back it was Rohammad Ali, as Z-Ro never seems to run out of heart-felt punches.
“No more sleeping outside, nigga.” These are the very first words out of Z-Ro’s mouth on the first song off of Call Me Rother. It’s the motivation for his entire adult life, never again having to experience homelessness as he did as a young man living on a park bench in the Ridgemont section of Missouri City. Teaming with fellow Houston legend Slim Thug on the song “Live My Dreams”, Z-Ro reveals “when I was young being rich is what I prayed for.” By mostly independent means, that’s exactly what Z-Ro has achieved.
But it hasn’t come easy. It’s taken a prodigious work ethic and a large amount of personal growth, all within an urban environment so negative that haters and enemies are far more common than friends. On the song “Kingz,” Z-Ro points out how “everybody love talking down on the kings…like all we do is cheat, kill each other and get high.” It’s a stereotype of black men in America that Z-Ro wishes to transcend, at the same time that the circumstances of his life attempt to trap him in a vicious cycle of drug abuse, violence and prison.
But with success and liberation comes celebration. It’s not all just the blues and pain rap for Z-Ro. On the song “No Ice,” Z-Ro exclaims that he’s a “lamb and lobster type of nigga, I don’t fuck with burgers, my conversation is for bosses, I don’t fuck with workers.” There is a sophisticated cohesion that runs through the album’s 15 tracks, as one would expect from a mature 40-something year old artist with a decades-long catalog under his belt.
Fellow 90’s rap veteran Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley fame joins Z-Ro on the song “Him”. Matching the slick production provided by longtime collaborator Cory Mo, Z-Ro hits falsetto notes on the chorus as high in pitch as he has ever recorded. On the song “Rother,” Z-Ro interpolates the melody from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” to classic effect. And definitely no lies are told on the song “Vandross” when Z-Ro says “I don’t even be trying, I just stand out.”
Obviously, Z-Ro is indeed trying. One doesn’t embody progress, both musically and professionally, the way Z-Ro has in recent years without exerting great effort. Whether Z-Ro ever becomes the mainstream phenomenon that his talent and artistic viewpoint demand, we can certainly continue to hold him up as a true King of the Ghetto down here in Texas.
Even in light of his highly publicized controversy with former rhyming partner Trae the Truth, Z-Ro graciously rises above the situation, stating on the song “My People”: “I’m just telling you act like you’re grown, man, I’ll never be cool with him, but when I see him in public, I ain’t tripping, we both gon’ make it home, man.” Now, that is some growth that we can all get behind. If only everyone could just follow suit.
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