Growing up having to hustle to be able to eat gave this young rapper a solid hunger for wealth and an understanding of how important it is to have money but he knows it's not everything.

Gorilla Zoe - self-made man

"I don't want to be just wealthy in money, but in knowledge and understanding of the business and in life."

Growing up having to hustle to be able to eat gave this young rapper a solid hunger for wealth and an understanding of how important it is to have money but he knows it's not everything.

Gorilla Zoe - Coming up rough

It was his anger that kept young Alonzo Mathis going after his father died. Born in Atlanta, Georgia on November 28, 1980 Alonzo lost his father at a young age and spent his growing up years hustling on the streets and "getting into trouble" by his own admission. It wasn't until after he turned eighteen that he began to look at life as more than survival.

A high school dropout, Job Corp educated cook and experienced hustler Zoe turned to rapping at eighteen and even built a recording studio to produce his own music. His big break into music came when Young Jeezy left Boyz n da Hood. He was the perfect replacement as his voice carries a same raspy yet smooth flow that Jeezy lent to the groups sound. Performing with Boyz N da Hood began in 2007 with the Back Up N da Chevy album that came out that same year.

However it was his collaborations with fellow Bad Boy Label artist Yung Joc that gave him his first taste of success with the release of Coffee Shop in the spring of 2007. The single featuring Gorilla Zoe from Yung Joc's Hustlenomic's album charted at #78 on Billboard Hot 100 the single did even better on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop songs chart rating #39. The second single released from that album, Bottle Poppin, also featured Gorilla Zoe and did well on the charts. The same album sampled Gorilla Zoe's first independent single Hood Nigga which was released that same spring. His debut record rated the best of all his singles by peaking at 7^th on the US Rap chart, 13^th on the US R&B chart and 38^th on the US Hot 100.

Grinding out the music

In October of 2007 Gorilla Zoe's first solo album, Welcome to the Zoo, was officially released on CD and as a digital download. Charting third from the top on Top Rap Albums, eight on R&B/Hip-Hop charts and eighteen on the Billboard 200 fed Zoe's confidence and spurred him on.

Album number two, Don't Feed Da Animals, released on March 17, 2009 and sold just under 30,000 units during the first week. The album hit number one on the Top Rap Albums chart, number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. This fourteen track hit album has generated the release of three notable singles. The first single, Lost, was released on iTunes in October of 2008 and features Lil Wayne. The lyrics tell of the lonely void rapping fame can create. Currently there are six versions of the single in circulation. What It Is, which features Rick Ross and Kollosus was released on March 3, 2009 and the third single, Echo, was launched on March 10, 2009 over iTunes.

At one point Gorilla announced an ambitious plan to release a mixtape a day during the month of February. He did so the first 11 days of the month, but daily production stopped after a great deal of negative feedback from fans about the diminished quality of the tapes. Since then 10 official remixes are listed in Gorilla's discography with a variety of MC's.

April of 2010 is the projected release date for the release of his third album which is expected to be called King Kong.

Gorilla Zoe maintains an informative MySpace page that offers free music downloads information on performances and a place for his fans to talk back to him. His sparser Atlantic Records based official web site is still being developed.

DID YOU KNOW