Through his debut LP, Dope or Dog Food, this San Francisco native takes us on one erratic hip-hop trip. Z Man goes from flowing Rasta-style on a low BPM roots reggae cut (“Knock on Wood”) to spitting self-descriptive raps over his bouncy theme song (“Z-Mutiny”). Nearly every direction Z Man turns, it’s hard not to follow.

     With a few exceptions though, the albums second half fares far better than the first, Early songs like “Come Gurp With Me” are funny and give a taste of Z Man’s very own vocab, but don’t compare to what comes later. Take “No Cure For Sugar” where Z Man cleverly speaks on addictions and all the contradictions that come along with judging them. Later comes “UFO” which explains a lot about Z as he raps, “UFO is what they yellin’ when they see me”.

     Newcomer producer Moss definitely deserves credit for helping orchestrate this MCs’ unpredictable approach, as Z Man doesn’t seem to be easy to keep up with. Dope or Dog Food is the sum of a sporadic Frisco MC who proves to be more freak than geek.