Zack Fox is one of those artists that if you know who they are, you are a major fan of their work. Known for his comedic tweets and his irreverent music, Zack Fox made a lane for himself in hip-hop by making comedy rap music that appreciates the culture of the entire genre of hip-hop. One of the biggest issues with his “competitors” such as Ugly God or Lil Dicky is that they can sometimes feel that they are making a mockery of the genre or focus too much on the comedic message that the song is just generally unappealing. Zack Fox has an ear for production and great connections and friendships with several producers allowing him to make tracks that sound good on a humorous level and an artistic level. His debut album shut the f**k up talking to me features production from Kenny Beats, The Alchemist, Dilip, and others including BNYX who executive produced the project as well. The project was cohesive and showed his potential as an actual musician instead of a comedian with music being a side project. The album ended up reaching number 65 on my album of the year list.
When I saw that he was doing a concert at Club Dada at Deep Ellum in Dallas, My buddy Henry Jones from Radio UTD and I decided to team up and attend this concert. After a long car ride from the LBK to the DFW area, I was well-rested and ready to party. It was a cold evening in Dallas, so we bundled up while we waited outside and talked to the other fans around us before ultimately getting inside. They had a small merchandise table selling a standard Zack Fox shirt and a tour shirt featuring Zack Fox peeing on the United States with all 7 locations on the back in the style of the Calvin and Hobbes bumper stickers you see on Ford F-150s. In his music, Zack Fox is inspired by and is constantly making references to 80s and 90s R&B, so for the venue to be playing Quincy Jones, Faith Evans, and Babyface among other classic tracks was expected.
ZelooperZ walked out exactly at the start time of 8 PM with a multi-layered outfit on and a MacBook in hand. His entire DJ set-up consisted of playing instrumental MP3s off of his computer plugged into the mixer. ZelooperZ is part of Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade label and collective and is the number two under Danny Brown himself. He is known for his unique style of experimental trap with humorous bars shining through the beats he has an ear for. Every album he releases touches on a different Hip-Hop subgenre. ZelooperZ’s last project Van Gogh’s Left Ear was number 71 in my album of the year list of 2021 and contained some of my favorite tracks from last year including “Paranormal Snaptivity” with RXK Nephew, “Don’t Leave”, “Battery”, and “Bash Bandicoon” with Danny Brown. Though most of the crowd was there to see Zack Fox, they went crazy during ZelooperZ’s set. ZelooperZ’s music can be manic sometimes and that was seemingly the vibe at Club Dada that night. However, after every song ended he would have to walk back to his computer and play the next track giving the crowd a moment to catch their breath and a second for him to talk with them just about life in general. Once he was sure the song was playing, he would walk in front of the table where the sound system was set up and instantly become sporadic and scream and jump to the music with the crowd taking a 180 from the focused and relaxed look he had while queuing up music on his computer.
He started the set off with the Van Gogh opener of “Battery” where he stood with his layers of clothing on and got the crowd into it. After each track he would take a layer of clothes off with items like his scarf and his big puffer jacket by the end he was only in pants and a tee shirt. Every song he and the crowd got more and more into the show. A majority of his set were tracks off of Van Gogh’s Left Ear, but he went through a few select tracks from his past albums including “2” from Moszel Offline, the crowd-favorite “Tryna figure out where my phone at?” from Gremlin, “Jayjay – Z” and “Easter Sunday” from Dyn – O – Mite, and The Alchemist’s track “Wildstyle”. Songs like “Easter Sunday” and “Tryna figure out where my phone at?” got the crowd jumping and rapping along. Midway through his 45-minute set, he asked for the crowd to split into two sides across the venue. Most of the crowd was expecting to close in on a mosh pit, but instead, ZelooperZ previewed his new song “Skinny Dip” off of his forthcoming album and asked the crowd to do a soul train line across the venue. The crowd including Henry and myself loved it. After wrapping up his set, the crowd begged for one more song, and he reprised “Battery” this time with every last drop of energy he had left. Since he was not in a big puffer jacket, he was able to jump and rave harder than before.
ZelooperZ left the stage around 8:45 giving room for Zack Fox to come out and give the audience a breather. Zack Fox came out exactly at 9 PM to an extended cinematic intro of “The Bean Kicked In” where he talked about the weather and got a few jokes out on top of that. From the get-go, the crowd was pushing and jumping going crazy. Zack Fox DJ’d using a Roland SP-404 including instrumentals to his song, sound effects, and other goodies he had prepared. Through the concert, he went through nearly every single song in his discography minus his features. Zack Fox had incredible control of the crowd the entire night, interacting with fans between songs and adding special features to his songs that you would only get at his concerts. My personal favorite off of shut the f**k up talking to me was Mind Your Business, and during the concert, he opened the song with the 70s disco song A.M. by First Light which is sampled on that track. He then proceeded to dance on stage before doing a clean transition into the actual song. Transitions like these built on the momentum of the concert and when the actual song came in, the concertgoers lost their minds.
During the show, a fan threw some Pokémon cards on stage and Zack Fox jokingly offered to give the concertgoer some of his women in return. Other moments include him getting thrown an Ikea bucket hat and wearing it and Fox getting tossed a disposable camera, and instead of taking a selfie with the crowd, he just took a picture of the crowd. He also performed the original version of his song “IHY2LN” which initially had a sample of gospel singer and minister Donnie McClurkin. Of course, since he is currently an active minister of a church, he never approved the sample, but Zack performed it with the sample anyways. Throughout the concert, Zack Fox rapped along mostly to every single song straight through giving a fantastic performance. In the rise of artists bouncing around the stage with their tracks playing with vocals, seeing an artist give it their all on stage ups the production value of a concert.
(Photograph taken by Henry Jones for Radio UTD. Used with permission)
During the concert, he played his ethereal and heaven-like remix of the classic OG Maco song “U Guessed It” that he made on a Twitch stream at the start of the pandemic where he said he wanted the crowd to “feel relaxed but still crunk” at the same time. Between tracks, he would offer insight and an inside look into his thought process behind a majority of his tracks and the feelings he wanted to address in each song. He would try as much as possible to dance on stage and the crowd ate it up every time especially during “Marinate”. He ended the show with the Alchemist produced titled track “shut the f**k up talking to me” and the Memphis-inspired “FAFO” before wishing everybody a good night. However, the crowd was not ready to go as Zack Fox had yet to perform the track that started his rap career: “Jesus is the One (I Got Depression)” from his viral performance on Kenny Beats’ YouTube show The Cave. Zack Fox came back from the green room confused about why people had yet to leave. He then built up some energy in the crowd before playing the opening to the track as the crowd hooted and hollered. The audience lost their minds as he paid tribute to the recently deceased Betty White due to the line from the song saying “R.I.P. Betty White, she ain’t dead but for when she die ’cause I know it’s coming up”. After the song ended, he thanked everyone again for the energy and appreciated everyone for coming out.
Henry and I left Club Dada satisfied with how both Zack Fox and ZelooperZ were able to move the crowd and have two incredible sets filled with so much energy. I would love to see either of these artists in concert again especially as they both continue to grow.
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