He admits his albums are more mood rings than song-cycles they’re something you put on when you want to feel a certain way. This is another great little strength of Ro’s-while he paints with just a few colors, he continually finds new ways to blend them. Lead single “Women Men” (which cops a beat from 50 Cent’s “Many Men ”) hits all the best Z-Ro targets: He talks shit, he sings, and the mood floats between celebratory and menacing, without one eclipsing the other. He embellishes the feeling, less the storytelling. It would be tempting to suggest Ro’s material mostly sticks to a few topics to his detriment-haters, baby-mama drama, disloyal members of his crew (sometimes these people overlap)-but what has separated Ro’s music from more traditional street rap, even among fellow introspective Houston contemporaries like Trae tha Truth and Scarface, has been his uncanny knack for taking just about any phrase and building a sweeping hook with it. This is Drankin’ & Drivin’s strongest suit-Ro delivers a few knockout hooks, addresses his haters, and it’s onto the next song. My favorite version of Ro has been the guy who turned “I hate you bitch” into a gentle, reflective, melodic lyric.
Z-Ro, legally known as Joseph McVey, sometimes calls himself “Rother Vandross,” and it’s more than a pun: Ro’s gorgeous, languid baritone frequently lapses into singing, and his best music has featured a hard-hitting hook sung by the man himself.
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