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Tum Tum

#sxsw #TumTum

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Deriving his rap name from what his mother and family members called him as a child, Tum Tum aka Zillaman has hip hop embedded in his soul. A fan of Texas rap during his youth, Tum Tum would find himself in legendary Dallas area Pleasant Grove's Bruton Bazaar CD shop, T-Town, browsing new titles, talking music, and eventually freestyling with other patrons, which sparked interest from store owner George Lopez, whom was starting a group that would eventually become "Dirty South Rydas". At first, freestyling and recording it for fun, DSR eventually became serious and started to hone their craft, establishing a viable listening base throughout Dallas and Texas. As the demand started to grow, so did Zillaman's passion for the booth and the music game. No stranger to the Independent circuit, Tum Tum would hit the highway with Lopez, hand delivering mixtapes and albums as the group pressed them up and distrubted them. Following closely behind Houston's big break on the national scene, DSR soon caught national attention, which propelled Tum to the single's charts with "Caprice Muzik" that landed him on 106 & Park countdown, numerous publications and awards, and MTVJams Fab 5 Freshman for that year of 2006, which later lead to his Universal Record's debut album, EAT OR GET ATE. Always more prone to the streets, Tum Tum stayed relevant with classic mixtapes with DJ Chuck T, and DJ Smallz, whom at the time were at the top of their game. Battling label problems, Tum Tum was a victim of circumstance, and EAT OR GET ATE never saw the push it rightfully deserved. Off the heals of a successful single, a hot street campaign, label turmoil overshadowed the success and never reached its potential. Instead of letting this defeat Tum Tum, Zillaman established his own sound, his own crew, and stayed relevant with his fans with mixtapes such as TumK9: The Grassy Knoll, which garnered several awards from media publications and online outlets. Always a trendsetter, Zillaman kept people in tune via YouTube with ZillaTV, giving you a glimpse into Tum Tum's every day operatives as well as new music. A veteran, and considred a rap legend of Dallas at 27 years old, Tum Tum is far from done. In August of 2010, Tum released the classic project "PURP KOBAIN" which recieved national attention for the album cover, which depicted a baby Tum Tum swimming much like the Nirvana - Nevermind cover in which the lead singer, Kurt Cobain, was inspiration for name of the EP. The PURP KOBAIN concept album was perfectly timed, in a era in which blogs and marijuana smoking hip hop took the forefront, Tumzilla released PURP KOBAIN and the project grew its own legs and established Tum as a mainstay of "The Smoker's Club" to fans, a popular indedpendent tour consisting of artists like Curren$y and Big K.R.I.T. Since then Tum has also released the DALLAS EP in Summer of 2011, which was also a free download tape that offered up the street shaking, trunk rattling beats and hard lyrics one could expect from the Dallas native. Now prepping for his latest release in the "TumK" series, dubbed "TumK: Respect My Hustle" it is promised to be a melting pot and collection of all things Zilla. The 28 year old rapper seems to be just starting, more so than wrapping anything up, with Purp Kobain 2 and Dallas 2 already in the works, and striking a new deal with the upstart powerhouse label Hulk Entertainment, we are sure to hear from Tum Tum aka Zillaman for a long time to come.

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