"It's a song I always loved, but I could never figure where to place it, in terms of albums and such. I've performed it a few times and it always did well... I kind of Kanye'd the hook and had variations of it done by El Malito & Margel The Sophant, before I put it together the way it is now. I just wanted it... to be great because the beat is crazy and the story/concept is heavily indebted to this book, The Song Is You by Megan Abbott," Wrecking Crew & Career Crooks emcee Zilla Rocca wrote, via text Monday night, concerning his latest stand-alone single. "Lemon Drop" was released in a similar fashion to Zilla's recent influx of 90's Golden Age Hip-Hop-evoking Noir-Hop loosies: "98 Avirex Flow" and Ghostface Killah & Raekwon-flipping "Faster Blade Redux," which was fittingly premiered right here at The Witzard. Zilla Rocca further explained that it's his "goal to drop one song a month for 2017 and maybe compile them all" into an album-length mixtape or compilation at year's end. Julie Miller at The Key WXPN, who premiered "Lemon Drop," further recounted that it "draws its story from a 2007 crime novel, itself inspired by the infamous 1947 Black Dahlia murder in Hollywood. Creating his signature air of nostalgia, Zilla pulls us into a seedy world of high-stakes gambling, dim street corners, and femme fatales with smoky production and vivid, classic pulp fiction imagery." Zilla Rocca drew inspiration from Abbott's The Song Is You, his own unique Noir-Hop aesthetic, and references an imagined " Lost Boyz or Q-Tip song from the late 90's" when describing Austin-bred producer Schadillac's hand-crafted beat for "Lemon Drop."


Aside from his own efforts, Zilla has recently submitted remixes for CURTA's "Rap Trope Questionnaire" (here at The Witzard) and Iceberg Theory's "Scienta Sacra," as well as dusting off Nas "Hate Me Now"-flipping "Alive & Paid" for inclusion within recently folded World Around Records' final label-spanning We Are World Around (Vol. 6) Bandcamp compilation; with Zilla's help, and nearly the assistance of nearly everyone at the label, I was fortunate enough to assemble a rather expansive 2-part World Around Records send-off, chronicling Dr. Quandary, Hump Jones & Louis Mackey's storied history, as well as fielding and then, assembling submissions from nearly all of the involved rappers, producers, and label affiliates. Zilla and fellow Philly-based producer buddy Small Professor are currently gearing up to unleash their long-awaited "debut" full-length, Good Luck with That as Career Crooks. I know they've very recently inked a deal with Canadian Hip-Hop label URBNET to unleash Good Luck with That upon the terribly unsuspecting world this upcoming spring and I hear there might be some sort of Career Crooks mixtape/EP pre-release before then; in any case, Zilla Rocca & Small Professor's "Least Important, Most Important" is available for your listening pleasure above, as well as Sin Will Find You: The Collected Works of Zilla Rocca & Small Professor, available from Wrecking Crew's Bandcamp on an extremely reasonable Name-Your-Price basis.