ZULUZULUU on CMJ Hip-Hop Charts 2016

Minneapolis ZULUZULUU's What's The Price? (Sound Verite Records) placed #37 on CMJ Hip-Hop Charts 2016.

Rank  Peak  Weeks  ARTIST & TITLE  LABEL

1114 DE LA SOUL And The Anonymous Nobody A.O.I.

2122 AESOP ROCK The Impossible Kid Rhymesayers

319 DANNY BROWN Atrocity Exhibition Warp

412 1LITTLE SHALIMAR Rubble Kings: The Album Self-Released

5126 KAYTRANADA 99.90% XL

6116 KOOLEY HIGH Heights EP M.E.C.C.A.

7116 ATMOSPHERE Fishing Blues Rhymesayers

8116 DJ SHADOW The Mountain Will Fall Mass Appeal

9119 COOKBOOK AND EVIDENCE A Whole New CookJ ust-Us Movement

10325 ANDERSON .PAAK Malibu Steel Wool

11118 LIZZO Big Grrrl Small World Self-Released

12217 OPEN MIKE EAGLE AND PAUL WHITE Hella Personal Film Festival Mello Music

13115 J DILLA The Diary Mass Appeal

14218 ASTRONAUTALIS Cut The Body Loose SideOneDummy

152141 0ISEE WILLIAMS Gorilla Warfare Self-Released

16218 MR. LIF Don’t Look DownMello Music

17525 CHANCE THE RAPPER Coloring Book Self-Released

18218 HOMEBOY SANDMAN Kindness For Weakness Stones Throw

19310 A TRIBE CALLED RED We Are The Halluci Nation Radicalized

20317 ARLO MAVERICK Maybe TomorrowMusic For Mavericks

21218 BADBADNOTGOOD IVInnovative Leisure

22413 JACKSON TURNER The Foundation [EP]No Play Concepts

23213 KOSHA DILLZ What I Do All Day And PickleOy Vey!

24416 KANYE WEST The Life Of PabloG.O.O.D.

25618 KENDRICK LAMAR Untitled Unmastered.Interscope

26313 TRAGIC HERO My Own Worst EnemyHometown Hero

27514 SAUL WILLIAMS MartyrLoserKingFader

28312 KONCEPT AND J57 The Fuel [EP]KON57

29518 NXWORRIES Link Up And Suede [EP]Stones Throw

30313 SADAT X Agua Tommy Boy

3115 NXWORRIES Yes Lawd! Stones Throw

3237 WAX TAILOR By Any Beats Necessary Le Plan

33310 MAC MILLER The Divine Feminine Warner Bros.

34919 BLEDJON The Popular Loner Self-Released

3548 DEREK MINOR ReflectionReflection

36414 ROYCE 5’9″ LayersInGrooves-Bad Half

3729 ZULUZULUU What’s The Price Sound Verite

38923 RJD2 Dame FortuneRJ’s Electrical Connection

39614 CHIMURENGA RENAISSANCE Girlz With Gunz [EP]Glitterbeat

40212 REL MCCOY Gas MoneyGamma Delta

41215 ROOTS MANUVA Bleeds Big Dada

42412 FUDGE Lady Parts Lex

43715 SAMIYAM Animals Have Feelings Stones Throw

44312 PAUSEMC Blue [EP]Permanent Vacation

45413 JONNY OCTOBER Prisoner’s CinemaSelf-Released

46210 MARCO PAVE PerceptionRadio Rahim

47310 BANKS AND STEELZ Anything But WordsWarner Bros.

48311 LOX CHATTERBOX How To Sell Your SoulIlluminati Killers

49511 KWEKU COLLINS Nat Love Closed Sessions

50512 JONATHAN EMILE The Lover/Fighter Document MindPeaceLove

https://www.cmj.com/cmj-year-end-charts-2016-hip-hop/

ZuluZuluu edges out Haley Bonar in our best-of-2016 Minnesota album poll

Twin Cities Critics Tally 2016: The cosmic hip-hop sextet's debut record edged out Haley Bonar in our year-end poll. 

Between P-Funk’s and Sun Ra’s spacey ’70s jams and more recent albums by OutKast and Janelle Monáe, Afrofuturism is nothing new in music. But it felt like a fresh and timely art form within the Twin Cities music scene in 2016, thanks to ZuluZuluu.

A collective more than a band, the psychedelic neo-soul/hip-hop sextet dropped in traces of all those aforementioned artists and our musical patron saint Prince in a seven-song, 29-minute debut EP that local music writers have collectively declared the best Minnesota album of 2016. While ZuluZuluu’s “What’s the Price?” was loaded with infectious cosmic grooves good for tuning out the din of 2016, the lyrics offered an alert, visionary, utopian exploration of African-American identity and art in a year that saw race issues boil up locally and nationally.

ZuluZuluu is only the second act to top both our 14th annual Twin Cities Critics Tally — a compilation of 24 music pundits’ year-end top 10 lists — and City Pages’ Picked to Click poll as the best local newcomer.

The first to do so was Minneapolis singer/rapper Lizzo, for her classic debut “Lizzobangers” in 2013. No surprise, Lizzo pops up again in TCCT 2016. She was named best live performer, while her feel-good summer jam, “Good as Hell,” was voted song of the year. Critical props also were showered on TCCT mainstay Haley Bonar’s album “Impossible Dream,” an unusually close runner-up, earning more votes than many of our past No. 1 albums.

While those artists deservedly shared the spotlight in 2016, critics overwhelmingly agreed that the biggest reason the Twin Cities music scene seemed so alive this year was the communal, hopeful, artful reaction to Prince’s death. These albums do his legacy proud.

1. ZuluZuluu, “What’s the Price?”

At first an unusual and wee bit untidy assembly of local hip-hop/R&B visionaries — including falsetto-slinging singer Proper-T, rapper Greg Grease, DJ Just Nine and singer/producer MMYYKK — ZuluZuluu impressively coalesced in the studio. “What’s the Price?” boasts ethereal beats and synths but earthy lyrical/vocal tones. While there’s no lack of noteworthy songwriting, from the big-pictured title track to the provocatively quirky romp “Bicycle Seat,” the EP opens with a cover that perfectly sets the tone: “Black Maybe,” which Stevie Wonder wrote for his late ex-wife Syreeta Wright. “You’ve seen the way they’ve done your boy,” Proper-T sings, “and the boy’s still down after 300 years.” While the music continually leaves you guessing, there’s no mistaking the mission here. (192 voter points)

http://www.startribune.com/zuluzuluu-edges-out-haley-bonar-in-our-best-of-2016-minnesota-album-poll/408613325/

ZULUZULUU What's The Price on Bandcamp's The Best Albums of 2016: #60 – 41

#58

ZULUZULUU, What’s the Price?

Part of the strong tradition of Minneapolis synth-funk, this six-piece group of multi-instrumentalists have captured the sound of their city with their exuberant live shows, and are now poised to take on the world. The Afrofuturistic ideals What’s the Price? arrive on the heels of the group’s recent mixtape of covers, which boasts a tracklist full of Black household staples. That same appreciation of their roots carries through in passion and power on What’s the Price? Whether indicting police brutality on the title track or getting sensuous and crushed-out on “Bicycle Seat,” ZULUZULUU keep the past close while pointing the way to the future.

Alesia Pullins

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/12/06/the-best-albums-of-2016-80-61/ 

ZULUZULUU The Cover-Up mixtape

ZULUZULUU follow up their debut What's The Price EP with a ten song collection of covers with The Cover-Up, art by Michael Cina.

Picked to Click 2016: ZULUZULUU are Minnesota's best new music act

ZULUZULUU are tired of the conversation.

On single “Fades,” amid astral synths and kaleidoscopic guitars, the group hits listeners with a refrain of “You’re asking all the wrong questions.”

“If we can get everybody to stop asking bullshit questions, what will the questions be?” Greg Grease ponders in an interview with City Pages.

Grease and his bandmates — Proper T, Trelly Mo, MMYYKK, DJ Just Nine, ∆RT P∆RTÉ — form the self-dubbed “producer supergroup” from Minneapolis. Together, they sliced through the bullshit with a question of their own: What’s the Price?That’s the title of the sextet’s synth-funk debut, released in June. The seven-track album is a cosmic fusion of funk, soul, rap, and rock that syphons influence from its creators’ respective solo projects. It’s also a conduit for ZULUZULUU’s message.

“What is the price? To live, to succeed, whatever,” Grease asks. “What’s the price for a young black man’s life? What do I gotta do to live? Is there an actual number? Am I supposed to pay something? Is this a rhetorical question?”

What’s the Price? doesn’t provide heavy-handed answers. Instead, it’s a psychedelically grooving exploration of ideas, of vibes.

“I definitely believe we captured something special,” Trelly Mo says of the LP. “It’s like you’re taking a snapshot of the time — the right here, the right now — and just presenting that to people in a creative way.”

ZULUZULUU’s creative process is as smooth as their rhythms. Most of the crew grew up as friends in south Minneapolis, and serious music-making began early. By sixth grade, Proper T was channeling his Neptunes obsession into his own beats. Come high school, Trelly Mo had routine studio access. “My earliest, most significant memories of being an actual serious musician is with these dudes,” notes Proper T.

That chemistry is all over What’s the Price? This is not a buzz band learning to master their craft on the fly. “We definitely weren’t internet sensations or anything like that — our shit’s very grassroots,” says Grease, himself a Picked to Click finalist in 2013.

“Listening is very important for us,” MMYYKK says. “We all have our own personal ears for music, [but] it’s not a competition; it’s a listening game.”

ZULUZULUU agree the studio is an ego-free zone, one that Trelly Mo likens to a kitchen. And no, even with six experienced producers, there aren’t too many cooks. 

“We’re all cooking, makin’ some gumbo,” he laughs, dipping into a delicious metaphor. “It’s flavor, man. It’s about seeing what you might be able to sprinkle on top — you don’t wanna overpower it.”

The band describes the end product as “high-value black art.” While artistry runs deep with ZULUZULUU, so does business savvy. The guys “constantly” talk about their place and timing within the music landscape, locally and worldwide.

“I think the Twin Cities is a seedbank, and the rest of the world is water,” Grease muses. “There’s tons of amazing artists here; we’re spoiled here because we get a lot of local support. [But] we don’t need everybody here to rock with us, we need the water of the world. We need the industry.”

And the industry could very well take notice, especially considering the track records of recent Picked to Click winners like Lizzo (2013), Allan Kingdom (2014), and Bad Bad Hats (2015). But careerism isn’t the motivating force behind ZULUZULUU — they’re ruddered by Afrofuturism, which Grease describes as “the development and growth of black excellence.”

“It’s a continued elevation,” he says. “We have to be conscious of it. That’s who we are.”

http://www.citypages.com/music/picked-to-click-2016-no-1-zuluzuluu/400451461