02 May An Evening with Zeale

Trying to navigate through the middle barge last night as a short girl in a flower crown deemed itself difficult. But my path was made simpler thanks to a sweet, tall rapper in skinny jeans and Vans Sk8-Hi’s.

“I’m good at this,” said Austin, Texas based Zeale. He kindly offered me his arm as we made our way down the homestretch, a rum and coke in his other hand. Finally, we made it to a narrow bridge between the middle and third barge, a DJ’s music and cheers from the crowd layered the background.

With a two piece band behind him, (even though you’d think there were at least five members with how full the sound was), Zeale took the Ford Stage of SunFest on Friday, May 1 to a crowd of about a thousand.

“Ladies and gentleman, my name is Zeale,” said the tall rapper with a grown out mohawk and a patch of blonde to the side. “How you feeling?”

A groovy mix of funk/fusion instrumentals sat under Zeale’s fast-paced raps with stringed together riddles.

He wore a black and white speckled tee, and red suspenders hung from his jeans.

His stage presence was larger than life, and his word speed was crazy. A background in freestyle was more than evident.

“I started doing hip hop through battle,” Zeale said as we overlooked the Intracoastal. “I used to do a lot of rap battling all over the country, and then I was like, ‘Hey man, that doesn’t pay enough.’ So we started playing shows and writing songs and you know, creating content. I love creating it’s my outlet.” 

And it worked.

The rapper and his band ended up touring with artists ranging from Blue October to Awolnation. Awolnation’s guitarist Kenny Carkeet ended up producing his EP, “FRNZ & FNGZ.” Zeale has also collaborated with Chris No. 2 of Anti-Flag.

“Listen,” Zeale explained of the random mix. “It’s 2015. I think all the barriers of music have pretty much been broken, and everyone’s connecting with people they vibe with and creating shit. That’s what you should do as a musician, create.”

“We want to have a party,” Zeale said to the crowd, who was growing fonder to them song by song. “I want you to dance.” The rapper went into what he told me was his favorite song to perform live, “Spin.”

“[‘Spin’] has an awesome moment where it breaks and I can talk to the crowd and interact,” he explained. “It’s very simple. all you have to do is dance with me, that’s it.”

Though this was his first time performing in West Palm Beach — “I know you’ve never seen this particular black dude in skinny jeans,” he explained — Zeale’s no stranger to Florida.

“I was actually raised for about a year in Homestead,” he explained. “I was born in Austin but my dad was a military dude. So we’ve been out in Florida at times.” The last time Zeale was in Florida was about four months ago in St. Petersburg on tour with Blue October. “I feel like the people that live here in Florida are amazing. They respond to the music and we respond to them. It’s the perfect circle.” 

To really connect to his crowd, Zeale likes to perform a freestyle passage at every show. He does it as a ‘thank you’ to the audience. Zeale went around the crowd asking three random people for a word that popped into their mind, that he would incorporate into a freestyle.

“I picked three words because that’s all I can remember, because usually I’ve taken shots on stage,” he explains with a laugh. His rum and coke now down to just ice. “But beyond that, I just like to interact with the crowd so I let them pick the words, and then they know it’s 100 percent freestyle. It’s not written down, rehearsed, anything like that. It’s off the dome and I love that. “

The audience selected the words ‘happiness,’  ‘sunshine,’ and ‘love.’

With no more than 30 seconds to prepare, the rapper spat off a three-minute freestyle that instantly earned the entire crowd’s respect. (Audio of freestyle courtesy of yours truly)

Audio Recorded by Emily Bloch 

“You get so much more credibility when you freestyle,” Zeale, who would practice by flipping through a dictionary and freestyling off whatever word he landed on, said. “People really respect that and I dig that. That’s the art of freestyle. and anyone who wants to get some can step on stage and get served. I live for that.”

Zeale closed his set by switching up genres yet again — “Is it cool if I do me?” he asked. “Is it cool if I rock out a little bit?”

They went into their song that features Chris No. 2 from Anti-Flag, “Radio,” an upbeat punk tune heavy on guitar.

“It’s a gift and a curse,” Zeale says of playing so many styles. “We love doing what we do because there’s no barriers or boundaries. But when people are like ‘we’re gonna go check out Zeale, what does he sound like? We’re like ‘uhh,'” he smiles.

“I’m like hey man, all I want people to say is ‘Zeale sounds like Zeale.’ That’s what it is.”

As I ask him how he felt about tonight’s set, he starts to tell me “I feel great it was —” when we’re interrupted by a couple who looked to be in their 40s. A tough looking guy, brawny, in denim and a lady by his side in a v-neck, shorts and flip flops.

The man shakes Zeale’s hand and the couple tells him he was amazing. “That freestyle though,” says the man. “It was awesome, man.” Zeale graciously thanks them, and looks back at me, beaming.

“I’ve gotten that quite a bit and that’s what matters,” he tells me.  “Talking to those guys, shaking their hands. That’s what warms my heart and that’s why we do what we do.”

The endearing rapper finished off his set with his single, “Marilyn Monroe.”

Zeale plans on touring more and releasing a new EP in the next eight months.
For more information, visit his Facebook Page.