Chicago’s MC Zulu is rarely seen without a megaphone in his press photos, though lord knows why he needs it when he’s got one of the most powerful baritone voices out there. In the last few years, the crossover MC has managed to collaborate with Poirier, Soulico, Murderbot, DJ C, Kush Arora, not to mention putting out his own tracks, that bounce from straight-up dancehall to dancefloor electro. Seeing as he’s got a new LP coming up, we asked him a few questions about his beginnings, the story behind the name, the scene in Chi-town and a whole heap of other stuff. Carry on reading the full interview below and download this exclusive track from his forthcoming album Electro Track Therapy, ‘Talk Dutty’, while you read.

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MC Zulu – Talk Dutty (Prod. DJ LionDub)

You’ve been MCing for a good amount of time now, but you started out as a hip hop MC – was that your first love?

My start in Hip-Hop, and music in general, was actually as a producer…In Chicago, in the mid-nineties.. At that time the idea of being an MC was secondary. I really couldn’t rap my way out of a paper bag. As far as Reggae was concerned, my style was way too non-specific to be taken seriously. I did manage to borrow a Korg X3 Keyboard from a friend, with the understanding that I would make free tracks for him and his crew. We ran to studios around the city to record, but none of the engineers knew how to synch the audio. That led to me learning engineering. So initially I was a “Lab Rat”. I loved to be in the studio.

How did you end up with the name Zulu?

Living in the north shore of Highland Park, Illinois and being a Black Panamanian, I had all kinds of choice nicknames.. “Black Chicken”, “African Booty Scratcher”, My real name’s Dominique. That was changed to “Domi-Nigger” and “Zulu”, from the Michael Caine movie. When Shaka Zulu came out, I pretty much wanted to crawl into a hole. I was lucky though, Afrika Bambaataa started making the rounds on mixtapes soon after. I got heavily into B-Boy Culture, and “Renegades” became my personal theme song. At that point I embraced “Zulu” as an identity.

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