Zumo Kollie

Rhode Island-based emcee Zumo Kollie is said to have an author-like writing skill that helps him to create timeless music with a message. Listening to his new song “Shooting Stars,” you find that the description fits perfectly.
The song speaks of things that bring stars down, using Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson as examples. “They got Michael, they got Whitney / I pray against the odds they don’t get me / Shooting down the stars make a wish, make a wish / Watch them fall close enough to miss“
The song was produced by Jeff Gore and features North Carolina emcee King Mez, who recently released his debut album My Everlasting Zeal.
This is a great song with a good message. It will be featured on Kollie’s upcoming album Elegant A.D.D. Vol. 1, due out on July 20th. - SoulCulture.co.uk

Zumo Kollie is back with a new joint titled “Carolina Blue” off his upcoming EP Elegant A.D.D. Volume 1, which is scheduled to drop on July 20th via Rudeboyy.com. Here’s what Zumo had to say about this track:

Carolina Blue – Greatness is just like anything else in this world that grows; it needs to be nurtured, watered at the right intervals with buckets of inspiration, shielded from the winds of disbelief, held to sunshine of recognition. Greatness doesn’t just break out of the ground and become the size of a sequoia, it grows. It starts somewhere. It opens the book, bends the binding, dips its ink into the well and starts writing its legend, one sentence at a time. To understand a great, you have to trace him back to his beginning. And to understand the greatest before he wore black and red . . . well, you’d have to go back to when he wore CAROLINA BLUE. - KevinNottingham.com

Rhode Island natives Zumo Kollie and M3 link up with BK spitta Skyzoo for their latest visual, "The Get Away." Press play to enjoy this loosie with some tastefully grainy visuals to go with the raps. - TheSource.com

I’m just going to come out and say it: Providence, R.I.’s own Zumo Kollie has dropped one of the year’s best projects to date with Last Showing. This dude has grown immensely since his last project, 2009's The Idiot Savant, which showed loads of potential. Consider that potential fully realized here on Last Showing, which features production from Apple Juice Kid, D-MAN, K-Salaam & Beatnick, Javelin, the Stuyvesants, and several others. Yeah, get excited, y’all.

Stream “DreamChasers” below and hit the skip to download Last Showing. - Potholes In My Blog

The only reason this even hit the desktop is because Javelin makes hot beats. The electro-hop duo from Brooklyn surprised everyone with the variety on their debut No Mas, providing anything from bathing suit-music to rap-ready instrumentals. Luckily for Zumo Kollie, the Rhode Island rapper happened to be amongst the first MCs to reach out to these potential hit-makers for layers. Luckily for us, this blatantly educated artist does nothing but compliment the filthy drums and Nick @ Nite keys with insightful rhymes and eyes wide open.

Last Showing drops in November and we’ll be now officially checking for it. - The Smoking Section

Providence-based wordsmith Zumo Kollie made his mark on the Rhody rap community with his 2009 debut, The Idiot Savant. His smooth delivery and wordplay (self-described as "elegant ADD") glistened atop jazzy beats and showed a ton of potential lyrically. Kollie returned earlier this summer with another mixtape titled The Last Showing, and now that potential has been tapped in earnest. A LaSalle Academy grad, Kollie earned his degree from URI last spring and sounds as if he is ready to jettison the place he dubbed "the ocean where the sharks be at." He sounds like a man on the move, literally.

"I'm taking this next year or two to put in the work and really get my music out there," Kollie told me when we caught up to plug his supporting slot for indie-rap hero Apathy at the Met (a great bill also featuring locals Meta P, Big Rush, and Sense One).

"I'm born and bred right here in the Renaissance and I've only really known this for as long as I've been alive," said 21-year-old Kollie. "My right-hand man and I have been talking, and a change of scenery in the near future is necessary, maybe Cali or New York City. It's just a matter of time.

"In Providence, like anywhere else, you're going to start thinking this is all that exists if you don't move around and see that the world is moving," he continued. "You stand in the same place and I guarantee you'll miss it.

"But you can hear it in my voice that this place is where my heart is, and this what I speak for."

The stream of-consciousness flow Kollie first delivered on Savant picks right back up on the "Last Showing Intro," where he debates with himself re: the stay-or-go sentiment: "I love my hometown like I own the crowd/but crowds don't line up when I put the flow down," followed by, "I fought to be more than a local rapper I swear/If the world is to follow the locals gotta be there — first."

Andrew Martin, a Rhody native and chief scribe for the knowledgeable music site Potholesinmyblog.com added Kollie's "Victory Lap" to his '09 Ocean State Sampler, and refereed to his latest as "one of the year's best projects to date." I concur, and highly recommend copping The Idiot Savant and The Last Showing free-of-charge at zumokollie.bandcamp.com.

Having written his first rhyme at age nine and cut his first track by 14, Kollie refers to himself as "young, but well-seasoned"; on "Times of Our Lives," he references "GQ niggas tryin' to be en vogue," and offers honest insight on the a cappella "DreamChasers Interlude" ("The lavish life we all want, yeah include me — but watch when you chase it, man, that first step's a doo-zee"); and on the standout cut "It Was On My Mind," he offers, "I'm scared out my mind but I think I'll be fine/I'll just eat the cheese and sip the wine, and stay away from guys who say 'swag' or 'grind.' " Conscientious rhymes glide over steely beats during the latter half, particularly on "Dreams End" and "Let Me Chill." And you need to hear Kollie rhyming over acclaimed Brooklyn-via-Providence duo Javelin on "Zero Hour."

"A friend of mine was up on their stuff and the words just started flowing, so I spun a track from Jamz n Jemz and did my little one-two over it," said Kollie.

"I have some more stuff I recorded over Javelin's work in the stash, and only recently I found out that we have some mutual acquaintances, so I'm trying to get word to them and see what they think. Hopefully they read this and get in touch!"

I asked Kollie about the flourishing rap community here that seems to be as humble, supportive, and focused as ever.

"I love it, man, but right now we need to get the fans of Rhode Island hip-hop to stand behind and support us, because it's not easy out here," Kollie said. "It's hard, but it's not out of reach.

"It's all on us to pound the pavement, take over these venues, take over these radio stations, and show our neighbors that we got the good shit right here." - The Providence Phoenix

It’s a sentiment that’s been expressed countless times in as many forms, but it bears repeating: you only get one life, so make it a good one. Unless you’re lucky enough to be Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jainist, Druid, Cathar, Druze, Rosicrucian or a Kabbalah follower, in which case it looks like you can expect another shot. But I digress – whatever your take on life and the hereafter, I think we can all get behind Zumo Kollie‘s latest single, Times of Our Lives, on which the R.I. native pledges to make every moment count. Backed by the lush sample work of K-Salaam & Beatnick, the young emcee showcases wisdom beyond his years; well aware of just how long and arduous the road to the top is, he’s nonetheless determined to touch the stars: “Avoid all the bull so I step with a purpose… nah, I’m not worried, I’m anxious because I’m workin, I can’t accept I get close and can’t form it perfect.” Think this up-and-comer’s got what it takes to make an indelible mark on the game? Debate away – or withhold judgment till you’ve peeped what he has to offer on his Last Showing LP, due out in Jan. 2011. - DJBooth.Net