MC ZULU

MC Zulu is a globe-trotting artist. He’s just back from shows in England and Zürich. His real name is Dominique Rowland, and he's the son of military parents. Zulu was born in Panama and after several hops around the world, the family settled into a predominately white Chicago suburb.

He joined Eight Forty-Eight to perform as part of part of the DJ Series: A Spinning Season, and was joined by DJ Searchl1te.

MC Zulu performs May 20 at The Abbey in Chicago. His EP Crowd Control is out now, and his forthcoming album Electro Track Therapy is out later this month.

Watch MC Zulu perform "Festival Madness" with DJ Searchl1te. - National Public Radio / WBEZ

Dancehall with big phat riddims, Panamanian artist with Jamaican accent, now part of the Chicago underground hip hop scene.

Many of the songs are distinctly un-PC - and 4 of them have quite a few FCC violations - but dear lord these are the phattest riddims I've heard in ages... Zulu also has quite a vocal range - check track 3.

FCCs on 1, 5, 11 and 13.
Tracks 7, 9 and 13 kick no uncertain ass. - Stanford U. Radio KZSU

US-label grime! Hoodie hoo!
Nintendo hits punching straight through a tightly-stitched, ruff riddim, with tuff delivery by Zulu crosscut with his singing abilities, sounding rough and sincere like Dervin from the Equals.

A poppy, soulful vibe underscores and contains the sonic violence one might expect.

The dub on the flip side jams hard as well, building rhythms in the space between beats and withstanding attacks from large 8-bit monsters that project bass as weaponry. Good times, good times. - Dusted Magazine

Straight outta Panama comes jiggy, hip-hop laden dancehall from the growling vocalist Zulu.

This impressive, extremely well-produced album laces pounding hip-hop beats with ethereal background strings and atmospheric enhancements interwoven over Zulu's impeccable flow-all thanks to producers Delon Reid, Beat Sciene and Demo XXL.

With track titles like "Striptease, Baby (feat. Luchie)," "U Sexy Girl" and "Game For Gals," The Dark is half gansta rap and part reggae-a true dancehall piece with super-sexual subject matter, driving beats and thuggish undertones that Zulu refers to as "gangsta beat."

The gangsta beat includes cut-time marching riddims and a heavy bottom line on tracks like "Another Shot," "Roll With Us," "Here Comes the Bass" and "The Audio Recording"-which also features expertly woven Indian tabla beats.

Zulu indeed kills the rhythms on Riddim Killah. - Global Rhythms Magazine

Everybody's favourite nu-skool junglist DJ C hooks up with his man Zulu for a killer 7" on Community library.

Taking a bare bones post jungle template - something similar to kode 9's infamous 'backward' riddim - with a metronomic hi-hat allowing the lumpen gabber kick/snare pattern to twist itself into a highly developed steppers pattern over invisible subhits and sticky bass.

A proper tasty little slice of steppers riddim methodology - essential purchase! - BoomKat

"...as the show-stealing Chicago MC Zulu urges here, the best antidote is to "fight the pressure with bass and treble." - Exclaim

Chicago’s Dominique Rowland, known as MC Zulu, has a booming baritone voice that almost knocks you over.

Whether he’s spitting his signature line “Spread the word!” or chatting political lyrics, Zulu’s vocal presence is unmistakable.

It’s not just the oral intonation but also his clipped phrases, stopping mid-sentence like a flicking typewriter’s carriage before starting the next line. - XLR8R Magazine

“Ghislain… Poirier… and the badman… Zulu! Revolution of the mind continue! Spread the word!”

This is how MC Zulu, Panamanian born, Chicago raised, jumps off on the 3rd single from Ghislain Poirier’s No Ground Under (ZEN138). ‘Go Ballistic’ is a soca drenched club banger that unashamedly blows up the spot. MC Zulu comes through with a melodic hype vocal that keeps energy high in the mix. Having released many solo efforts plus collaborations with Aceyalone, Kush Arora and DJ C, MC Zulu is hot property these days... - NinjaTune

MC ZULU does not make reggae in the traditional sense.

His unique blend of electro bass grooves and Caribbean style dancehall vocals creates a new form of dancehall reggae from the outer reaches of space.

Trippy synths and huge bass kicks and claps make his music rhythmically frenetic and exotic.

ZULU defines a new style of progressive electro-dancehall riddim. - URB Magazine

MC Zulu talks the way you want a dancehall rapper to talk. Whether he’s toasting over cut-up dubstep beats or answering your dumbest questions in a booth at the Rainbo, his deep growl has such a distinctively Caribbean lilt that you keep expecting him to slip into patois—he reminds me of modern reggae lions like Bounty Killer and Shabba Ranks. But Zulu, real name Dominique Rowland, just has the accent, not the vocabulary—he spent his early childhood in Panama and moved to Chicago when he was nine.

He started making beats in the early 90s, first producing house tracks for local DJs, then branching out into hip-hop. He’s been rapping just as long, but after a few open mikes he decided he’d rather sharpen his skills as a dancehall deejay—the preferred term in much of the Caribbean for what’s called an MC in American hip-hop—out of the public eye. He didn’t emerge again till the end of the decade, and since then—though still stuck in the untropical midwest and barely recognized in Chicago—he’s become a respected figure in a small but significant dance-music scene with global reach. He’s philosophical about this odd career path: “There’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” he says. “There’s just pieces of gold along the path. You pick them up and at the end you have a pot.”


FULL TEXT: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sharpdarts/081120/ - Chicago Reader

With his deep, accented voice and rhythmic flow, Panamanian-born Dominique Rowland, who goes by MC Zulu, has the cadence and presence of a classic dancehall vocalist. But he aims to be anything but standard issue.

Calling his style “electro-reggae,” Zulu adds his gruff voice to the work of genre-crossing producers like Montreal’s Ghislain Poirier, who blends bass-heavy rhythms into forward-thinking club burners. “Reggae is open source music open to interpretation by many people,” says Zulu.

In that spirit, he has collaborated with artists ranging from Ghislain Poirier to Chicagoan DJ C and the frentic, glitchy Mochipet. - The Onion | Decider: Chicago