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Zilla and Sos are not going to preach at you, dispensing answers from a pulpit; they’re going to smack you in the face with the questions.Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now. “Anything we catch a vibe to, that’s the song,” Sos says. However, this project showcases some of Mula’s most incredible verses to date proving to us that he’s not going anywhere. Where the strains of hip-hop that have grown out of the Auto-Tuned Atlanta scene and the punkish one birthed on SoundCloud are less jagged and value negative space, City Morgue songs are serrated, nearly growling. While all of these songs do hit hard; the singles released before the project are definitely still the strongest on the project.Since they formed, SosMula has definitely gotten the short-end of the stick. If you aren’t inundated with underground Hip Hop you might not have heard of As of the publication of this article; their first World Star Hip Hop premiere “Shinners 13” has racked up 3.1 million views.The video has shown a music outfit with the potential to have longevity in a music climate that favors short-term virality. They’re also wound tightly; while Sos and Mula have different backgrounds as music fans, each brings to his recorded material an eager verbosity, packing verses with carefully-timed syllables. And Zilla’s are the product of a suburban neighborhood where “a lot of young White kids and their parents using really deadly drugs like heroin,” says Mel Carter, the Senior VP of A&R at Republic Records, where City Morgue signed in 2018. But the combined energies of the two rappers is anything but a natural fit in today’s rap landscape. While most City Morgue songs resist the kind of linear, myth-building narrative that more conventional rap gravitates toward, there is an underlying complexity. This is just Volume 1 and all of the original singles are on the tape which means it’s This new wave of metal rap is finding itself and this is the testament to that fact. Sos’ raps are littered with references to the kinds of neighborhood activities that landed him behind bars—but which are sometimes the only economic options for people from his block. “It’s a natural progression,” Zilla says of what he and Sos have learned from one another on the creative front. When Sos was locked up on a 15-month bid following a house raid in 2015 (he says the police found “like 50 grams of crack,” along with various other contraband), he often called his friend Righteous P on the phone; P is Zilla’s older brother. Its members are Junius 'ZillaKami' Rogers from Bay Shore and Vinicius ‘SosMula’ Sosa from Harlem, including their producer Sami 'THRAXX' Nehari. The era of bubblegum trap is finally coming to end and I couldn’t be more happy about it. By submitting this form, you agree to the Universal Music Group Privacy Policy. Here, the group talks about their upbringing, combining rap and rock to create their music and more. Their debut album Hell Or High Water released on October 12, 2018. “Nobody really knew what was going on there.” This marriage of the urban and suburban, like the meshing of rap and rock textures, makes City Morgue’s music a fascinating document of American life in 2020.And where some modern rap groups, like Brockhampton, actually met online, City Morgue came together as the result of familial connections. ZillaKami x SosMula Produced by Thraxx CITY MORGUE VOL. 1 : HELL OR HIGH WATER HIKARI ULTRA video remix by illview follow us on IG: @illview )But each rapper is also committed to evoking the crushing truths of the real, unplugged world. Its music video currently rests just above the 10-million mark, and is included on their 2018 mixtape, As things stand right now, Sos and Zilla have a chance to join the rich lineage of aggressive, counter-cultural rap acts that capture the independent spirit of early rap and translate it for a broad audience. “I was a good kid, you know what I’m saying,” says Sos, “I wasn’t a bad person. These two are like Hydrogen and Oxygen; their chemistry brings this sound to life. City Morgue challenges conventional ideas: about what rap can sound like in 2020, the way music can cut across lines of race and background, which images and ideas are considered offensive in a country that shows a cruel disregard for so many of its citizens. City Morgue chops it up with XXL for the Spring 2020 issue. City Morgue Volume 1: Hell or High Water is the first glimpse of a metal rap sound that is palatable to a mainstream audience and yet remains as cutting edge as it started. But they quickly struck up a relationship that went beyond welcome-back daps and house parties. Zilla’s background in punk—he previously played bass and sung in a band in his hometown and he apparently spent time ghostwriting for the loud, careening “Shinners13” did not have 20,000 views for long. “We’re not trying to shock you, we’re just trying to show you what we see everyday”, says ZillaKami of City Morgue. My hope is that they start expanding on this style in the coming projects; longer songs, consistent song structures, and, as always, I want to hear them push the envelope some more; as with any artist. There is no holding back just well-produced, well thought out rage-raps that will put a hole in the wall if it’s loud enough. City Morgue is an American hip hop duo from New York City.