ZOD1AC

Akron, USA

Louder Waves, Stronger Winds

Hip-hopInstrumental

Behind the Music

My home city of Akron, Ohio is a city that once boomed from the rubber industry. There is now blight where factories once stood and overgrowth where canal shipments took place. So naturally, I feel a connection to the chapter “Rusty Kingdom” about Sealand. Being from a rust belt city myself, the idea of machinery being left to rot in nature and later to be reclaimed by a new group of people resonated with me. 

Much of the “Rusty Kingdom” chapter focused on the legal quagmire of Sealand, but what mesmerized me the most was the setting. I want my music to convey the feeling of this desolate land and show how being surrounded by the ocean can be equally terrifying and tranquil.

ZOD1AC
About ZOD1AC

ZOD1AC is an instrumental hip-hop artist based in Akron, Ohio who draws influences from a diverse mix of genres, including jazz, boom bap, ambient, shoegaze, downtempo and classical, in addition to having an ear for contemporary production styles.

Winner of the 2021 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Innovation in Journalism

The Journalism behind the Music

All music in this project is based on The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

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