Z-Ro (born Joseph Wayne McVey on June 6, 1976) a rapper from Houston, Texas (Missouri City, to be exact) He was raised in Ridgemont 4, Neighborhood in the southside of houston known for gang violence and drug dealing , has embraced his inclusion in the Screwed Up Click, a loose collective of Houston rappers associated with the famous DJ Screw, and even proclaimed so brashly on one of his albums, Screwed Up Click Representa (2002). He released a number of other albums during the same early-2000s stretch, having begun a couple years earlier with Look What You Did to Me (1998). He has been featured on Bun B's single "Get Throwed" with Pimp C, Jay-Z, and Young Jeezy. In a recent interview, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he believes that Z-Ro is "the most important artist of his generation."

It wasn't until Z-Ro grew older, that the trauma of his mother's death from cancer hit him. It was through hip-hop that Z-Ro found a channel for his experiences. By this time he had moved to Missouri City (a Houston suburb known to locals as 'Mo City'), and befriended a local rap group, Street Military, who were signed to EMI Records. Now a member of Street Military's Killa Klan collective, Z-Ro found himself inducted into DJ Screw's infamous Screwed Up Click in 1997. But Screw wasn't the only one to pick up on Z-Ro's talent, and what followed over the next five years were a string of independent albums, considered by fans around the world to be Down South classics.

Z-Ro's first solo release, Look What You Did to Me, was described by Murder Dog magazine in 1998 as a "ground-breaking record" and a "masterpiece". Interestingly, that first album regularly sold for over $100 on online auction site eBay, before its recent re-release. 1999 saw the release of the equally lauded Rise by the Guerilla Maab, a group Z-Ro formed with his cousin Trae, and brother Dougie-D. In 2000 Z-Ro vs. the World was released, followed by King of da Ghetto in 2001. With the release of an astonishing three solo albums in 2002 - Screwed Up Click Representa, Z-Ro, and Life - and a new Guerilla Maab album, Resurrected - all active on the Billboard charts, Z-Ro became very well known in Texas as well as around the Southern United States.

In 2004, Z-Ro Tolerance was released by a record company Ro was no longer affiliated with, but had the rights to publish what they had, and pieced together an album. Less than a month later Z-Ro's first wide release album, The Life of Joseph W. McVey was released on Rap-A-Lot records. Although the album cracked the Top 200 on the Billboard Charts, it did not meet sales expectations. But that was the least of Z-Ro's problems, as the first of many arrests to follow occurred. He was subsequently released during the summer of 2004.

Asylum Records, an independent subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records, struck up a deal with Houston-based Rap-A-Lot Records after seeing major success from fellow Houston-ite rapprs Mike Jones and Paul Wall, and Z-Ro's Let the Truth Be Told was released in early 2005. Once again, sales expectations were nowhere near met, but his national appeal was growing as it debuted at #69. Multiple arrests have occurred since, and his newest album, I'm Still Livin' is still in the process of being released, with a November 7th, 2006 date set

Discography

Albums
1998: Look What You Did to Me
2000: Z-Ro vs. the World
2001: King of da Ghetto
2002: Screwed Up Click Representa
2002: Z-Ro
2002: Life
2004: Z-Ro Tolerance
2004: The Life of Joseph W. McVey (#170 US)
2005: Let the Truth Be Told (#69 US)
2006: I'm Still Livin (November 7th, 2006)

with Guerilla Maab
1999: Rise
2002: Resurrected (A.B.N. album)
2006: Guerilla Maab Hitz, Vol. 1 (S.L.A.B.ed)

Mixtapes
2003: A Bad Azz Mix Tape
2003: Gangstafied
2004: Underground Railroad, Vol. 1: Street Life (Hulled & Chopped)
2004: Underground Railroad, Vol. 2: Thug Luv
2006: Underground Railroad: Paper Stacks 3 (Hulled & Chopped)

Compilations
2002: Z-Ro vs. the World / King of the Ghetto
2003: A.B.N.: Assholes by Nature: The Soundtrack
2004: For My Thugs: Greatest Hits
2005: Kings Of The South (with Lil' Flip)
2005: 4 da Green Reloaded (with Al-D)
2005: Fuck 'Em All: Z-Ro's Greatest Verses Revisited & Remixed
2005: 4 Da Green Reloaded
2005: Z-Ro and Friends
2006: 4/20 the Smokers Anthem
2006: 1 Deep



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