“I make music for people that still care about words and art,” a concise yet resounding quote from rap artist Tori MF Zo. The Milwaukee, WI native that has been making a name for himself in his hometown and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. His love for music was first an insatiable love for reading that started at a young age, fueled by whatever books his older sister left lying around. This lead to him turning the library into a second home, he would even get in trouble in school for reading during class. Until he eventually felt compelled to express his own thoughts, a compulsion that turned him into an avid writer. Writing that evolved into performance art when he joined the slam poetry league in high school. Performance and poetry that turned into music at the tail end of his senior year when he began recording music with his cousin, inspired by Kendrick Lamar, Isaiah Rashad, Mac Miller, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, and Earl Sweatshirt among many others. Though his love for hip-hop began at the age of nine when he saw Hip Hop You Saved My Life on 106 & Park coupled with coming across a copy of Da Drought 3.

Since his music journey began he’s released a slew of singles and eps that carry a unique, original, and dynamic sound with an overall introspective tone, emphasized in his most popular single Rapping Like the Rent Due. Although his latest work, controversial figure: villain era, while still surgical in it’s execution is more explicit and energetic in its display. Tori describes his approach to it as “I just wanted to make music that I could drive to, have fun with, and enjoy out loud. I’m not just a wordsmith, I’m a musician, I’m a hitmaker too and I also wanted to show the world all sides of me because nobody is ever just one way.” An honest and intentional approach his fans have become all too familiar with.