Zack Fox’s Debut Album is No Laughing Matter

I interviewed Lil B about his influence earlier this year and meshing humor with music. He sent you some major love. He also said his intention was never to be funny. Was humor your mindset or intention when going into the studio on this album?

Really, I feel the same way. I’m like, it’s literally whatever you want. Whatever you feel like you’re taking from it. If it’s funny, if it’s anything else. It should all be left on the table. I didn’t approach the album with any other intention than to make a rap album. And once you get rid of all the other goals and contrived shit, then you’re just having fun. And I think Lil B is absolutely correct. He was just rapping the way that he knows how to rap, just doing what he knows. When you do that, nothing is gonna be twisted or overthought. That’s just what he felt like saying at that moment. He’s made some of my favorite songs of all time that I still quote a decade later, you know what I mean? And that to me is art no matter how you slice it. 

How has it been adjusting to having a music career, playing shows, seeing people now out there for strictly the music?

It’s always been something that’s next to me and around growing up in Atlanta. Everybody’s a rapper, and not only is everybody a rapper, but everybody’s a star. It never feels weird when somebody comes up to me and is like, “Yada, yada, yada.” That feels more natural to me than somebody coming up and reciting one of my jokes or a tweet. I’d rather you come up to me and be like, “Oh, you said this on ‘fafo.’” That means it really stuck with you and that you ride around listening to that shit in your car. 

shut the fuck up talking to me. We have nine songs and an interlude on this. These songs are each only two or so minutes long. Can you explain why you opted for a shorter project here instead of one of these massive albums that we’re seeing more of?

I hate that shit. It’s something that really pisses me off. That’s not to say there aren’t albums like that that I like. But I just think for me personally, right now, I wanted to make something that felt fast and hard and bangs. Some shit that you could play on the commute to work. It’s a 30-minute drive to work where you want to swerve up the road and kill people on the sidewalk, you know what I mean? Or hit other cars on the highway. This will match your energy in that because that’s how I created it. 

This is not a compilation [of old music]. This is all shit that I made in a one or two-week period, some that’s newer, and I was just in one mood. I was just an angry old man that whole week. I want my album to feel like a punk record, I don’t want this whole extrapolation of my multi-dimensional personality. I’ll do that again with the next nine-song thing and try to capture another dimension. But right now the dimension is like, a n***a that is pissed off.

I was listening to the songs that I was making before the inception of this record. I was making stuff that was cheerful or joyful, almost smooth, jazzy, elevator music sounding beats. And this was all dope, but then I was riding in the car one day and I kept turning the knob more and more to try and crank it. And I was like, it’s not cranking more. I’m most myself when I’m in the car, that’s my zone. All of my thoughts, all the words that I cuss out loud in the car. Your thoughts about the world come out so much when you’re driving that I knew I wanted something that’s the soundtrack to driving fast, too. I apologize because you’re in New York, so you won’t you won’t get that feeling.

When did the process behind this record start? How long would you say it lasted?

It was definitely August, September. I sat down one day with BNYX and I was like, “I’m doing it.” We’ve been working on things here and there but it was time. I remember Phil Morris had sent me the beat for “uhhh” two years ago. It was in my beat email. I found it and I was like, “Holy shit, how did I miss this? This beat sounds like a fucking truck transforming into a bad bitch and she start stomping on you. It sounds like a robot fight.” And BNYX just found a way to perfectly line up those two songs. And I was like, “Oh, well, this is the energy for the tape.”

Normally when you think about a debut album, it’s something of an introduction to that person’s life. Do you feel like this is a good opener to you as an artist for people finally catching on?

It’s some of my favorite stuff I’ve ever made. I’m not doing anything that I was doing in 2018. I’m not doing anything I was doing in 2019 or 2020. It’s all coming in completely fresh. I don’t think about music as this thing where you have to be autobiographical and tell people about yourself. I think that’s a cool thing for certain artists and something that I would like to do, but for right now, I’m just a Southern man and I like songs about the type of shit that I like. 

“What I like is alcohol, guns, and bad b*tches, so I try to figure out ways to talk about that sh*t. And if you want to make inferences about the type of person I am behind all of that, that’s really on you.”

What I like is alcohol, guns, and bad bitches, so I try to figure out ways to talk about that shit. And if you want to make inferences about the type of person I am behind all of that, that’s really on you. I’m from a place, Georgia, where we go to the club, play pool, drink beers. I listen to songs about bullshit because that’s what’s the most fun. Some of my most favorite songs of all time are “Southside Da Realist” by Big Tuck, “Trial Time” by Mr. Bigg, “Knuck If You Buck” by Crime Mob. Songs that are just an emotion. 

That emotion could be, “I’m rich.” Let me just talk about that. Or, “Imma fuck somebody up.” Alright, talk about that for two minutes and 30 seconds. I think music gets very overthought where people are like, “I gotta say something about me. I gotta say something about the world. And I gotta say….” You need to just speak about how you feel because somebody else a million miles away might take a completely different idea from it. “Knuck If You Buck” was a fight song, but I’m damn sure somebody’s first date happened because of that song. You wouldn’t think it is a love song, but somebody out there met the love of their life. And they had a beautiful relationship that blossomed over the years and and it was because of a song about stomping n****s out.

You think this album is a relationship starter?

Hell yeah, I do. I think anything could be a relationship starter. Any app is a dating app. You know what I mean? Anything could be anything now. We’re in the fuckin’ age of information and nothing is static or in one place. I hope to just inspire people to have fun with their music and not be too locked in a certain shit.