“I’ve already seen Carol City told through someone else’s point of view, which was Rick Ross,” states Floridian wordsmith Denzel Curry.
The 24-year-old rapper is chatting to Clash six months after the release of his fourth album, ‘ZUU’. Denzel has always paid homage to Carol City, the notorious neighbourhood in North Miami where he grew up.
“I felt like as an artist, I wasn’t like Ross or Gunplay, so I wanted to show how I saw life there on the daily,” he offers, adding: “you’re still going to get the same kinda stories; I just wanted to tell them in a very artistic way, showing Miami in a whole different light.”
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Since coming to the forefront of the underground rap scene via the Florida-based collective Raider Klan back in 2011, Curry has been releasing music at a steady rate. A series of mixtapes released throughout 2012 grabbed the attention of the rap world, and since then he’s dropped six projects, which have garnered him a legion of loyal fans.
When ‘ZUU’ was released back in May, a section of his fans tried comparing the project to ‘TA1300’, the 2018 album that really put Curry in the spotlight. However, he believes the majority of his fans are open to his progressing sound. “Sometimes fans don’t know what they want,” he points out. “Some tried comparing it to ‘TA1300’, but I think the majority understood that it doesn’t have to be the same thing over and over again, y’know?”
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Denzel’s favourite track from ‘ZUU’, ‘WISH’, has its own little fascinating story behind it, one that the Miami native is eager to tell.
“It’s a feel-good record,” he says excitedly of the song. “We sampled a record by the B. B. & Q. Band and we’d actually sampled it twice cos the first time we did it they didn’t like the song,” he reveals. “The second time, when they heard how we’d used the sample, they loved it, and they let us go ahead and use it.”
Not only does Denzel have a huge following in the States, but his fanbase touches all corners of the globe. One place that the Floridian rap god holds dear in his heart is the UK. He has performed to packed audiences here on his own headline tours, and also played festivals across the country. Along the way, he has become close friends with several of Britain’s best artists. In 2016, in support of his ‘Imperial’ album, Curry called on grime top boy AJ Tracey for a verse on the remix of ‘Knotty Head’, and more recently he’s gone toe-to-toe with new British rap prince Slowthai on their track ‘Psycho’. So just what is it about UK music that Denzel likes so much?
“I love the way they rap, and I love the way their beats sound,” he confirms. “I’ve been a fan of grime since I heard Escobar’s ‘Big Bars’. I used to watch Lord Of The Mics, just to see ’em battle each other, like Wiley and Kano.”
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Aside from his own sold-out headline tours that see Denzel span the globe, he has also had a support slot with an unlikely source: pop wonderkid Billie Eilish. Whilst it might seem strange for a hard-hitting rapper such as Denzel to open up for one of the world’s biggest pop stars, it all seemed to feel right to him. On the face of it, he was launching his music to a whole new set of ears, and in turn, playing huge arenas shows across the States. Playing in 10,000-capacity arenas might seem daunting to a lot of artists, but not for Denzel.
“Yeah, I felt like I belonged there 100%” he confidently states. “I’m only going to get better. That was just my introduction to these size venues, and I pulled it off.”
Having a solid legacy behind him is something he’s passionate about. With ‘ZUU’ now adding to a sturdy catalogue of music that he’s already released, making sure that he’s always producing his best work is Denzel’s forte.
“When I make music, I always think about great albums that influenced me,” he reveals. “Albums like Lupe’s ‘Food & Liquor’ and Nas ‘Illmatic’, or any
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