ZEO officially released his first album in March. The album title is an indication that he believes his time will soon arrive and it will show he is ready. The album has seven tracks, and he hopes it becomes the hit that makes him be “the guy.”
I have been listening to ZEO for roughly 10 years, as he is from the same county in upstate New York as myself. When I heard he was working on an album I assumed it would be a larger project, but for me the album is still phenomenal.
ZEO teased the record by releasing “Westside,” which is now his number one streaming song on Spotify.
Out of his top five most streamed songs, three of them are from this album and the two others from the album are “Bands On Me” and “Numb.”
The album reflects how he feels about himself and that he believes he has put in the work to be successful. In this album he talks about leaving his hometown and moving to Los Angeles, California, to pursue his dreams as he felt the hometown was holding him back. In the song “West Side ” he alludes to this saying, “All good vibes on the west side, I was losing my mind in my hometown … they’ve been telling me to stop, I’ll never slow down.”
The album contains mostly hip hop and rap as the genre. The songs “West Side,” “Bands on Me” and “For Life” seem like the songs that say: I love doing this and I’m here to stay.
The song “All I Need” is one of the love songs opening up with “Imma fight for you love baby … you’re all that I need baby.” ZEO has a few songs in his arsenal that trigger love, but most of his music is about him showing love to his family and working hard to be there.
For me, the best song on this album is “Westside” for a few reasons. The first being the fact it’s the opening song of the project and sets up everything following it beautifully. Another reason is that ZEO very rarely talks negatively about where he’s from as he most likely doesn’t want to discriminate against his heritage, but at the same time the area in which he is from is becoming a epicenter for drugs, especially opiates and methamphetamine.
Also, the title is the direct opposite from a former track of his called “Eastside” that talks about where he’s from and how he’s proud to be moving up in the world, especially proud to help his mother. On the other hand in this one he takes the more selfish route which in my opinion is the best route he could’ve gone for an album called “Time Will Tell.”
Overall, the whole album is a new favorite for me. However, I wish the project had more pieces on it, but I’m sure he has more and better music in store. This album was a long time coming, and it is really awesome to be able to see someone from the same area as myself to reach and achieve his goals although he is not done yet.
