A place can lose parts of itself without losing its hold on the people who grew up there. Affection survives alongside anger.
For Akron artist Zmack, that uneasy attachment supplies the foundation of “Rustbelt Rejects”, his original hip-hop album. Memphis trap, Horrorcore and funk-metal inform its vocabulary, but geography gives those influences a shared purpose.
This is a record about belonging to a damaged place without reducing either the place or its inhabitants to damage.
Zmack began rapping and making beats with his late best friend CJ in middle school. Their hours of practice established the skills he continues to develop, and “Rustbelt Rejects” serves partly as a memorial.
That history gives his independence a less solitary meaning. Although he makes the beats and records his own vocals, the work carries a friendship forward. Grief becomes a reason to keep creating, rather than an obligation to make every song mournful.
The album also draws on relationships, Irish-American identity and the changes Zmack has witnessed around Akron. Yet it avoids a single continuous account of his life.
Its songs gather separate memories, emotions and attitudes, allowing anger and odd humour to occupy the same project. That choice matters because personal history rarely follows an orderly argument.
Nor does self-direction mean working without support. Dave contributes production help, mixing and mastering, while Mitchel offers tips. Long-time friends Charles and Jordan act as sounding boards, and Zmack’s girlfriend Rianna encourages him to release music.
Rob assists with promotion and feedback. These roles describe a modest creative circle rather than a cast of guest performers.
Recorded between Zmack’s home setup and Dave’s space in Northeast Ohio, the album treats available equipment as an invitation to experiment.
Distorted slap-bass sounds take on roles closer to percussion or synthesizers than conventional bass lines. Zmack processes and rearranges them, sometimes seeking a broken or unnatural character.
As a result, bass becomes expressive texture as well as weight. Roughness becomes part of the composition, rather than something to erase at the finishing stage.
Industrial sounds and power-tool textures extend that principle. Mechanical noise becomes rhythmic or atmospheric, while dubstep-style low frequencies meet phonk influences and Memphis-inspired drums.
Distortion, resampling and unusual layers supply further movement. Like assemblage sculpture, the method gives familiar objects new meaning through unfamiliar relationships.
Here, sounds associated with work and machinery become tools for personal expression.
However, heaviness does not account for the whole design. Funk-metal informs catchy grooves and occasional melodic singing, while New Wave and industrial influences contribute electronic and robotic textures.
Doom, sludge and nu-metal widen the range of weight and structure. The attraction lies in that meeting of abrasive textures and enjoyable rhythm, with place and personality connecting the choices.
The three highlighted tracks offer different ways into the album’s concerns. Rust Sound addresses the environment and attitude of the Rust Belt, including the character of an overlooked place.
Its significance rests in refusing to equate neglect with emptiness. Zmack’s regional perspective includes frustration and pride, but also an affection that makes the anger intelligible.
Blood of the Irish brings that question of belonging into heritage. Irish-American identity, history, pride and aggression shape its subject matter, giving the album another scale of personal connection.
Rather than making ancestry the explanation for everything, Zmack treats it as one part of a larger self-portrait. Meanwhile, Dirty Muskrat introduces grime, strangeness and humour.
Its rock- and metal-oriented structure further loosens the expectation that a hip-hop record must organise every song alike.
Humour deserves attention here because it prevents darkness from becoming a single fixed posture. It also gives listeners another point of contact with the personality behind the distortion.
Fans of experimental hip-hop, Horrorcore and heavy electronic production may find the project’s range inviting. Others may prefer a more consistent genre framework.
“Rustbelt Rejects” makes a different proposition: coherence can come from the person making the choices, rather than from their sameness.
The album’s significance lies in authorship rooted in memory, friendship and a specific home. Zmack works with the character of his surroundings instead of smoothing it away.
If a place teaches someone to build with what remains, what might that person teach us to hear in its fractures?
