EVERYTHING MAINEY 
You might know him as Z-man, you might know him as Z-mainey or Zamon, you have heard him
tearing up the mic on multiple albums and hella shows. Z-Man is now stepping into the art world with
sketch inspired Acrylic canvass work. I recently caught up with Z-man and we talked about his venture
into Painting, Hipsters, and Lil’ Wayne.
Well Z, What are some of your earliest influences?
Woody The Wood Pecker!
Really Woody The Wood Pecker?
Yeah man that was the first thing I remember sketching, my mom was bugging out when I first
started drawing. She saw the Woody The Wood Pecker sketch and thought we could make millions!
You got to love the support of moms, but who are some of your influences now?
Aaron Hokey, who painted the cover for Sacred Hoop’s Sleep Over album, was the first man to get
me motivated to work on canvass. But being a young skin going on field trips and stuff I would trip off
artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, and Norman Rockwell. Some living ones, Ron English, James Jean…he
is sick as fuck. But I think the thing that has most influenced me the most has to be comic books.
Does being an M.C. inspire your art work, or vice versa? Or do you like to keep the two worlds
separate?
It’s really hard to keep those worlds separate when you are animated person, you know I’m a character.
I can admit that. Both styles just go, it makes sense for them to. I consider myself a lyricist
I would say you are a story teller.
Yeah, you know the paintings I make are telling a story so it goes hand in hand with what I rhyme. It’s
only right that the art and rhymes will coencide. It’s fun.
It’s all about fun
Yeah fun, but it will drive you crazy. I’m just trying to get into the art game of it all, and make some presence without being like too Hipsteror weird or whatever the case, ya mean? It’s a funny time with art. I have been seeing a lot of stuff with art and eh…its cool and I hear it, but it’s all about expression, but I feel like a lot of stuff looks the same.
It’s been done before.
Yeah, I think people need to start taking acid again or something; you know what I’m saying. Or
taking shrooms. Can people just get an imagination? I mean I never went to art school, it’s sort of tough
for me, you know one I can’t afford art school and two; I just don’t have time for it. I’m doing a whole lot
of traveling, recording, painting…I got to teach myself I have no choice.
Well besides the lack of creativity what part of the art world do you enjoy, and what parts do you
like?
I don’t think I have a name or something like that quite yet in the art world. People are starting to
catch on, but it’s not going like wildfire just yet. I’ll tell you some things I don’t really like, I think that
everything is pretty white, that’s all I kind of see. It’s the same thing with advertisement every time you
see advertisement it’s defiantly white. I want to do a piece that’s so crazy to the point where everything is
black, and it’s still normal and maybe have a white women in the middle of it like she sees billboards and
they are black people, and there are cosmetics and crazy ads that are usually white but they are are black,
and this is black, and that’s black, then she looks in the mirror. Having a white women just being there its
sort of something out of a time machine. It doesn’t necessarily have to be black…it can be Latin, Chinese,
you know I live in Frisco the diversity here is crazy…
You know I have done a couple art shows and they went cool, I think people are pretty amazed, I
don’t want to say this token or whatever, but they are like damm this motherfucker is drawing and shit.
Maybe because I’m black and they don’t think that black people get down like that, you know what I’m
saying?…I want to paint what I feel I don’t want to be afraid to paint certain things. You know not super
offensive, but make people think about, “do I really want that in my living room? Nah I’ll put that in my
bedroom.
So do you paint with a message or do you paint just for random fun?
Everything has a story in it. I just don’t paint something that leaves you hanging. Everything has a
little story to it, almost like a comic strip with a little story to it. Or Not. But there is always something
going on. It’s like when I rap I like to name my album first and sort of go off that theme. I want to make it
entertaining and it’s the same thing in art, stimulate the mind and make it say oh wow that’s cool, or not.
You know?
It has come a long way from influences like cartoons, black and white movies, um…artist and the way I
was brought up living in the projects and all that seeing a lot of shit, doing a lot of shit, and making it out
of there and doing my thing. I have never fronted, I never changed, I didn’t follow the latest trends, I just
said I’m comfortable in my own skin some people don’t like it, and I can understand why and sometimes
I’m like really, but you know to each his own.
Any upcoming shows?
Well I got this show out in Minneapolis, but I will be working on a website so you can go there and
check out my work. You know I got to get that going so people can just believe me.
Right on well let me ask about your other creative outlet, music.
Give me a little history of Gurp City.
I didn’t invent Gurp City or anything, but it’s really just a collective of guys and girls who like to get
faded, there are some M.C.’s and artist in there. My boy Matt Loomis basically designed that Gurp City
Logo and now it’s finally getting some light. My boy E.J. sort of ran with it and started to put it on shirts,
napkins, handkerchiefs, silver wear, whatever aprons…stickers, defiantly stickers just getting the word
out you know. People are down with it, I know a lot of mother fuckers who like to drink, smoke, and you
know whatever. Chico is and has always been the definition of Gurp City; we were there to get on Gurp,
that was like our little Vegas.
What’s up with One Block Radius? New album or any shows coming up?
Your guess is as good as mine. To be honest I’m not really sure what’s going on with One Block
Radius….
Seems like you all have a lot of stuff going on
For sure, you know it sort of came to a halt. But right when that happened I was having my E P
dropping and you know it’s been like Z mania all year. It’s good because I needed to step away from the
pop life for a minute. Pop life was driving me nuts for a minute. But it’s good I needed get grounded for a
minute.
Yeah it’s always good to get back to the roots. So tell me a little about you new album 6 Pack of
Dynamite?
Yeah 6 Pack of Dynamite I want to say October, but probably in November, but nothing is for sure
I heard you got Lil Wayne on the album how did that come about?
Yeah got Weezy on the album with Mike Marshall doing a little hook. You know I got that Lil Wayne
track a few years back when it was a lot cheaper. I got Opio on the album. I really didn’t want hella
people on the album.
You know I have noticed that about your work.
Yeah man, you get some of these street cats who are dope and have 18 tracks on an album but they are
only really on 1/3 of the songs because they have some many niggas on the album.
Alright Z well we will be looking out for your art work, which you can check out here at Lower
Branch, we will also keep our ears open for 6 Pack of Dynamite and thanks for taking some time to talk.
No, thank you man.
Peace Lower Branch
Simon Todd LB staff writer.
Please head over to http://www.machetevox.com for a free download of the EP “Show Up Shut Up and Rap”
