Zawezo, born Alex García in San Cristóbal, is a Dominican rapper and songwriter. He recorded for years as Zawezo Del’Patio, dropped the suffix, and has spent the last stretch of his career making something almost nobody else in Dominican music is making.

Del’Patio

The early records are the ones the catalogue knew about: the album El Circo and the singles Remember Me and Voy a Mi in 2011, Como Tú No Hay Nadie the year after, released through the independent distributors an artist used before streaming — CD Baby, Beatport, iTunes.

He was inside the Dominican urban scene of that moment and worked with Sensato, and an interview from about eleven years ago is entirely about the terms on which he would work with him again. In 2014 a song of his went onto the Latin Grammy ballot list, with his legal name in the songwriting credits alongside two American writers. That is not a nomination — the ballot list is everything submitted — but it means the paperwork was being done properly.

Snake Tongue

What he does now has almost no relation to that. Snake Tongue is a serialised project released letter by letter — A, then B, subtitled Babylon, then C, D, E, F, G. Around it sit Codex Eternum, Caecvs, LaelliouL, O.D.D.S, Aves and Sirius, and the physical album Orion, made with K.O and Jazz.

The titles are Latin, astronomical or invented, the delivery is unhurried, and he describes himself on his own profile as a researcher before he describes himself as a singer. A track called simply R.A.P., made with K.O el Más Completo, is the one place he states the position plainly.

An audience for a difficult record

He works from New York and New Jersey and runs his own company, sells physical copies at a moment when almost nobody does, and sustains an audience on his channel without a hit, without radio and without a label behind him.

The arrangement is uncommon among Dominican rappers. The genre at home runs on the single that works this season, while his catalogue is built to be followed as a body of work.