The Slow Twilight

Zilla Rocca & The 5 O’Clock Shadow Boxers

2013

The Slow Twilight is a concept project comprised of MC Zilla Rocca and producer Douglas Martin, and is loosely based off the NYC Noir Flick A Blast of Silence which is about a hired killer from Cleveland who returns to NYC and has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

Stitched together with clips from the New York City noir flick, there’s something crepuscular about The Slow Twilight—a record haunted by a grueling paranoia that only makes sense after the sun sets. Zilla Rocca catalogues “the worst year of [his] life,” without wallowing in soft-headed indulgence, balancing a nuanced introspection with that essential element of good hip-hop: if you crank it up, it knocks.