Audio Premiere: Zumo Kollie - You're A Good Sport, Zumo Kollie [EP]

For those not familiar with Providence, Rhode Island emcee, Zumo Kollie, his head-nodd inducing banger, “Park Day," makes for a great introduction. But just to make it clear that he’s got much more on deck for your eardrums, take  some time out and peep his brand new OKP premiered EP, You’re A Good Sport, Zumo Kollie. Save a feature from Jeff Gore (who handles most of the production) on track #3, young Zumo handles the bars for dolo on this 6-song release. A real refreshing listen and worth your 16 mins (and it’s free, so you have no excuse). Check it all out, below, and get some words from Zumo on the state of mind that created his latest EP. Check back on Wednesday, when we premiere a doc that will give you a closer, more in-depth look at this emerging emcee.

I started working on this project about two years ago, before I ever wrote one line or listened to a beat for it. I was angry. I was frustrated. I was stuck. The EP I put out before this, Elegant A.D.D., had done okay, but it was a regression in sound from previous stuff . . . sounded like I was reaching. I was out of college with no real job and loans on my name. People I trust told me that I looked and sounded off, like I was all of a sudden aware of the world around me and had to compensate for the fact that my sound wasn't 'big enough'. I needed to get my shit together, I was told. I'm a quiet kid when I get mad; I nod my head and agree with everything the person in front of me is saying, knowing in myself that I am not even on the same planet with them anymore. I went back to my little bedroom studio and wrote like my life depended on it, before I ever knew it did. It started with a few songs that are on this first part of Good Sport, some that are on the second part . . . another story for another day. The songs that began the EP were free writing projects; explorations into my mind when I didn't know what to think anymore. Over the process of making this album, I took acid for the first time. I lost my father and my cousin. I found out that my mother's cancer was incurable and will take her life any day. I got mad . . . I got quiet. My thoughts made their way into the sound. I already had suffering in my voice when I found the hop in the flow a year ago. The pain and the bounce are lethal partners when paired the right way. I didn't cry, I didn't make a scene. I figured my shit out and waited my turn. I didn't have money, I had my story, songs, smiles and handshakes. I was a good sport about it. I listened to what people wanted to hear and I wrote what I needed to say . . . found the balance. Good Sport answers the prime question of my life over the past two years, 'If we can give them the bounce they want to hear, will they let me tell the story I need to . . . or will they be too busy nodding to notice?'