Denzel Curry's Commandments (Zel-Zine Interview Now Live)
This interview is taken from the limited edition print (44 pages) and digital (64 pages) Zel-Zine that you can buy here or by following the links at the bottom of this article.
According to Denzel Curry, every rapper should be battle tested. “I try to be as out of the loop as possible,” he begins candidly as he takes his seat opposite me, our Viano pulling off almost instantly, departing from East London’s Dalston. We’re carrying on from a prior conversation which began outside of NTS radio’s London headquarters, surrounding the most dissected, discussed, and debated rap debate of both this decade to date, and now, of all time. The vigour in Curry’s voice juxtaposes with his previous statement, as his stance regarding Kendrick Lamar and Drake reveals itself. “Shoot, motherfucker’s have to be battle tested.” Conceding with rap communities worldwide— from Manchester to Alabama, New Jersey, to Dublin — he’s quick to mark his favourite song of the spar. “‘They Not Like Us’ is the song of the summer, it is what it is.”
Outside of the usual rap takes in this terrain, Curry’s assertions are fortified with a layer of authority. The now 29-year-old’s origins within the genre began at the top of the last decade, at the height of blog-era rap. As Lamar, Drake, as well as J.Cole emerged as this epoch’s victors — graduating and then going on to dominate for a decade longer — clusters of rappers amongst the trio also released. Amongst Mick Jenkins, Chance The Rapper, Larry June or Joey Bada$$ stood Denzel Curry, who, like Aubrey Graham this spring-summer, had to arrive at the booth prepared. “Nyck Caution was the first person to ever beat me in a rap battle,” Curry concedes, without hesitation.
He’s not ashamed at this juncture; behind his black fox-eyed, Prada sunglasses, lies an air of serenity — it soon engulfs the vehicle. We’re still in East London, the typical traffic of the city providing an ideal back-drop for clarity, nuance and transparency. “I got destroyed, so I was like ‘that can’t happen again’.” 20-years-old at the time, the rapper used the lesson to evolve. Likening rap to boxing and sport broadly, Curry notes that each lyricist has to be ready to out-think their opponent in each and every way to succeed.
Learning the error of his ways a few years after his 2015 defeat, ‘SPACEGHOSTPUSSY’, targeted at SpaceGhostPurrp, sees Curry, alongside Ski Mask the Slump God, Lofty305 and the late XXXTentation hiss at the rapper’s former friend. “I had to obliterate him right where it was,” he finishes sharply. Following old tensions between the two, in the wake of Curry’s 2013 exit from the Purrp-led collective Raider Klan, the death of A$AP Yams, and ultimately disrespect led to the pair's battle. “I was actually happy that he responded with ‘End Of Stan 2’, he was actually rapping, but the internet ran with the name ‘SPACEGHOSTPUSSY’ at the time.” Of his former mentor now, he acknowledges Purrp’s role in helping to advance his career, however, remains distant with the figure in 2024. Likening ‘Not Like Us’ to journalism, Curry ultimately is a fan of wordplay, he admires both artists' contributions here, marking it healthy for the genre. “Now everyone’s not afraid to drop, so many of us can drop now without worrying about major releases,” he laughs.
Like his approach to war, Denzel Curry is extremely methodical. As our drive deepens, the estimated time towards Peckham increasing by the minute, the ethos and methodology behind his career-plan reveals itself. “I think of contingency plans, always,” he says. “I have to.” There’s a moment of silence, before laughter erupts into the car. “Why?” I inquire through the noise. “Batman,” Curry hits back, almost as if he knew my question was coming. Completely serious, he references the 2018 DC-themed Justice League movie. In the film, Batman has a plan of defeat should a Superman, Wonderwoman, or any other member abuse their power. “You know what I’m saying, you have to think of the next plan. You never know which one of your plans is gonna work out.” Admitting that it’s gotten “confusing” for both himself and management since implemented that same year, Curry is wedded to his fans, whom he says this approach is great for.
Denzel Curry’s fan-first approach has led to a robust and distinguished discography to date, with the Miami-raised rapper displaying multi-faceted approaches to hip-hop, his artistry always enticing and enhanced because of this. The lucidity and freedom erected on a Nostalgic 64 — across numbers like ‘N64’ and ‘Benz’ — vastly differs from the carnivorous Curry that leaps across Zuu’s ‘BIRDZ’. Elsewhere, on arguably his strongest effort to date ‘TA13OO’, a brutally honest, sombre ‘SIRENS | Z1RENZ’ caresses the ear. There’s no denying the prowess, and diligence that comes with Denzel Curry, he’s nestled beyond the underground, becoming one of the blog-era rappers most revered names. His trajectory grants him coveted features alongside the likes of A$AP Ferg, Robert Glasper, or J.I.D. with ease.
This year, Curry is keen to finish something he started over ten years ago in providing a sequel to his sophomore mixtape ‘King of the Mischievous South : Volume 1 Underground Tape’ to an eagerly anticipating fandom. “This has always been the plan,” he begins ratifying. “[The first project] is literally called ‘Volume 1’, it had to be followed up.” With other albums and projects becoming the works that stand today, the rapper had previously faced troubles leaning into the series’ successor, noting that the songs crafted, even when intended to form part of the second volume, failing to instinctively feel right. Using ‘Zuu’ as an example, Denzel Curry says that that was themed around his Miami home, ‘King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2’ however was crafted in an environment of creating music for the sake of music.
“This body of work is about the third coast states, it’s a South tape, because I feel something from every region I travel to.” Ranging across Texas to Alabama, the third coast region also encompasses Florida — the latter of which Curry is quick to remind me of, as well as the car’s other passengers. “Folks will say ‘where are you from? Miami? That ain’t the South’, man you dumb ass hoe.” The rapper's tone here is engulfed in might, however, it’s a brand of seriousness equally primed with jest as it is defence. Curry is impassioned not just because of his geographical accuracy, but because of the shared experiences that regions in this sector of the South share. “Ultimately, at the end of the day we grew up the same. We [in Miami] call it the ‘candy lady’, they [in Houston] call it the ‘cookie lady’.” His example, although trivial, demonstrates a collective experience, one that he knows well, and one that he’ll defend vehemently when challenged.
In their similarities, are differences also. Finally veering into Southwark and thus, entering South London, we briefly rejoice. Somewhat ironic, considering the conversation on regionally south states across America, Denzel Curry embraces, and is fond of the aggression from his South Florida foundations. Noting their slang terms like “slide” and “git”. “If we don’t like you, we’re gonna say that shit. Calling someone a f*ck n*gga, is the ultimate disrespect in our world.” This differs from the pride found in the Texan persona, Curry’s observation of regions like Houston, Memphis, San Antonio constantly being mentioned first as a marker of this trait. “Atlanta has that warm Southern hospitality to it,” he adds. “With slang, if they say ‘green’ they use it like ‘he doesn't know’, here, in Florida, we say it like ‘he’s a messed up person’.” Content, and proud of his brief history and sociological dissection, Curry leans back for a moment. “We’re all family though.”
Representative of the connective-tissue between the south is ‘King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2’’s invigorated tracklisting. From Atlanta’s Kenny Mason and 2 Chainz to Winston-Salem’s TiaCorine and Fort Lauderdale-backed Ski Mask the Slump God, Denzel Curry’s sixth studio album is quickly anthemic, reverberant and oozing in confidence and ego. “Bitch, if I made you deaf, my jewellery only made you blind,” he raps alongside That Mexican OT on ‘Blag Flag Freestyle’. Weaved across the alluring affair, is an intentional lineage to the project's predecessor through sonics. A seminal artist under this approach is Memphis-rap titan Kingpin Skinny Pimp. Known to many of the underground circuit for his true to form, sleek and smooth delivery and poignancy in soundscapes, the MC has many songs with titans of the region, inclusive of Juicy J and Three 6 Mafia.
Like many others who have chosen to sample him over the years — Project Pat, DJ Paul, and $uicideboy$ for instance — Curry has wedded Pimp’s discography to his own since his debut in the series. The loose, tranquil, but strikingly honest ‘One Life 2 Live’ arrived in 1996, brimming with assertions and ruminations on the life of a Memphis rapper. “Help me feed my children. That drought got me selling that dope again,” he says, his cadence soothed, somewhat quelling his matter-of-fact topic focus. The song is sampled for Denzel Curry’s ‘One Life to Live (RIP Chynaman) 94’, as he dives into the politics of his surroundings and loss around him. Across his sophomore in the series, Kingpin Skinny Pimp returns, this time, in a heightened role across soundscapes. “The interludes to keep things cohesive were sampled by Kingpin Skinny Pimp, I wanted that sound to come across specifically,” Curry explains. Taking specifically from his ‘Skinny Pimp - Vol. 1 - 1993’ project, Curry wanted Pimp to benefit from the use too. “He told us that this was the best project to go for and there were gems that we used accordingly,” Curry concludes.
It’s a surprisingly warm day in the city, the humidity fills the car, as we inch closer and closer to South-East London, through a hue of sun, Curry’s many pendants perched around his neck begin to gleam in the sunlight. A fixture across many rappers' aesthetic — Lil Jon’s ‘Crunk Ain’t Dead’ golden necklace to the iconic Cash Money Records chain — they provide an element of additional personality and character behind the mystique of a rapper, and enhance their identity markers. As older traditions of rap and music evolve, chains and wider jewellery like grills remain evergreen. Amongst the odes to Street Fighter, his acronym ULT — which holds multiple meanings including Unity, Love, Trust and Ultimately Liberating Together — is a Lower East Coast chain. “You know the alligator represents where we’re from,” Denzel says proudly, showing off his chain in the sunlight. “It’s where I come from, it’s where we come from.” Curry points towards our third passenger, PlayThatBoiZay.
Beyond his own upcoming album, Curry’s in the executive producer seat for Zay’s solo release. “It drops straight after my joint, we’re keeping it heated for everybody,” Though, a collective of sorts, with Curry in a mentorship role, Lower East Coast is strictly that, not tied to the weight of the label services that a Cash Money Records or No Limit would or do provide. “It’s more about identity, but we don’t really do labels. We’re a management team, group development,” Curry says. “I gotta make that perfectly clear, because we want the artists to shine, we’ve seen labels generally hold artists back. I just had the idea that we all need chains.”
Across his recent, OnTheRadar-backed ‘Mischievous Cypher’, Curry and Zay are seen sporting the chain in the ultra-violet studio-lights, instantly distinguishing them from the Ferg’s and TiaCorine’s that stand alongside them. United as ever, often ad-libbing one another during our journey across the Thames, there’s a brotherhood that's naturally bound by geographical region, ventures in music, but also sheer determination. As the pandemic eased, Zay finally ready to release music, the rapper faced a fatal car accident, resulting in a coma and intensive leg recovery. “I was in hospital for a good two or three weeks, and eleven months of physical therapy,” he shares. Amplified in his tone, a sense of gratitude but perseverance exists in Zay’s demeanour, he’s earnestly optimistic when recalling some of his lowest moments in life. “The crazy thing is I tore my ACL, during his recovery, it was both of our right legs healing together,” Curry interjects. “Like our right legs were fucked up.” Recalling the 2022 experience, both hobbling off of stage at times, the pair grew stronger and nourished their yearning for live entertainment together. “Now Zay’s ready to take over,” Curry finishes. “If there’s anyone who is ready it’s him.” A sense of buoyancy paints itself from cheek-to-cheek in Zay’s smile, the informal mentorship helps to provide community, and also lineage as Curry becomes a middle-child — and eventually elder statesman — in rap.
“Not everyone’s cut out to be a rapper,” he says of Lower East Coast members he’s spoken to. “It’s not about not being in rap, or music, but there are other roles, we can’t all make it.” To Curry however, he vehemently believes in Zay, a fundamental reason behind his decision to executive produce his album. We’ve finally arrived at Peckham’s communal-staple Jumbi, Curry in complete control as he weaves through an array of looks for his supporting DMY shoot at the now empty venue. Instantly striking an array of expressions — from staunchly serious, to charismatic in seconds — an air of professionalism, experience and routine enters the fore, colouring the rest of the day. Curry, in his over decade experience in music informs his perspectives, he’s able to lead with assertions to his peers and MC’s after him because of this and advise from an affirmed position. “There’s other positions in the industry, everyone [from the Lower East Coast collective] has been able to find a place that they can excel in,” he continues. “Sometimes, it’s just not directly rapping. There’s engineers, there’s other roles and players.”
Beyond music and video games, Denzel Curry plans to release a comic book series called ‘Hell Trials’, then a supporting television series, and lastly a film. “The characters came from me, and a homie Shane,” he shares methodically. “My cousins Deandre and Greg were the ones who helped me to flesh it out. I was showing them what I’d been doing and they said ‘fuck our writing project, we’re gonna finish [the comic book series]’” Tight-lipped for the first time in our conversation, the only clarity that Curry provides beyond the project’s name is that it’ll hone in on character development, a technique that he says anime have perfected consistently. “You’ll hate a character,” he begins. “But then want to root for them because they are on the winning side, or you’ll be introduced to a character in season two that you think is irrelevant but then boom, he’s back in season five and a villain and it's like ‘what?’, then they’ll take you on a subplot on how he became that way.” Visibly excited, he reveals that one of his first artworkers, Tristan Zammit will edit the upcoming comics.
Balancing all of his ventures — music, drawing, mentorship and any of the other “contingency plans” — means that Denzel Curry is often timeshort. Something he has prioritised however, is Muay Thai. The Thai-themed martial art has provided even more community, some of which are based in London over the last eight years. “The field is small, so whenever you travel, you get to connect with people easily,” he explains. Ultimately however, Muay Thai helps to discipline Curry both inside and outside of the booth, across the sketch-pads, and as he provides the next generation of lyricists with assistance and guidance. “That’s what’s so good about it,” he starts, his tone hollow, deeper and sharp with intention. “It’s the mental fortitude of it all. ‘If they hit me, how am I gonna hit back?’” Clarifying his statement with a nod, the Curry in-front of me is deadly serious, prepared for every twist, turn, and loop-hole that life has to provide him.
This interview has been taken from the officially sanctioned by Denzel Curry, limited 44 page zine printed on 115gsm gloss paper (170mm x 240mm) with pull out, double sided, bigger than A2 poster (483mm x 685mm) printed on 120gsm uncoated paper.
Based on an exclusive shoot by Rob Jones while Denzel Curry was in London promoting new album 'King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2' in June 2024.
Also features an extensive interview by acclaimed journalist Nicolas-Tyrell Scott and a Spotify playlist put together by Denzel himself.
The print zine is limited to 500 copies and won't be reprinted.
Expanded 64 page digital zine available exclusively from WeTransfer.
Buy the limited edition, 44 page print Zel-Zine, including a Spotify playlist created by Denzel Curry himself: https://store.dmy.co/release/4...
Buy the expanded, 64 page digital PDF Zel-Zine, including a Spotify playlist created by Denzel Curry himself: https://we.tl/p-o8pw0f8z95
