Oakland’s Zion I Crew Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

During the recent Blackalicious show at the historic Fillmore Auditorium, the capacity crowd was treated to a stellar show from Zion I which has expanded its members to include founding member Zumbi Zoom, legendary Triple Threat deejay Vinroc long time South African emcee Dusk and emcee Deuce Eclipse who fronts the group Bang Dada…

As the group hit the stage and dropped song after song, it struck many of us just how deep Zion I’s catalogue is and just how long they been around. The Oakland based group formed in 1996 with Zumbi and producer Amp Live. They released their first album Mind Over Matter in 2000.

Their sophomore album Deep Water Slang was released in 2003 on Raptivism Records. Their third album, 2005’s True & Livin’ is one of my favorites. It featured  guest appearances by Talib Kweli, Aesop Rock, Gift of Gab, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and activist/ freedom fighter Fred Hampton jr.  It also contains one of their most popular songs ‘The Bay’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt7wJnQxWwg

The group’s fourth album, Break a Dawn, was initially only released in Japan in 2006, but was subsequently released internationally. Also in 2006, Zion I recorded Heroes in the City of Dope, a collaborative album with the Grouch, which Om Records released toward the end of the year.  They followed that up with the Takeover in 2009 and Atomic Clock in 2010, both were critically acclaimed.

Since 2010, Zion has released a a few more, albums, a number of mixtapes, live eps and scores of singles.. Their musi library is deep and that was apparent during their set at the Blackalicious Show.

A challenge facing many long time groups is they lose a few steps and struggle to stay relevant. Such is not the case with Zion I. They are as hungry as ever and have honed their skilled to near perfection.

Below are some photos we took from their excellent set at the Fillmore .