As his New Year’s Eve exclamation point to 2025, Minneapolis-based rapper Zander, an American released the EP PROJECT 2025, a collection of his most potent musical work of the past two years plus the brand new single “Did You Hear?!”
Three weeks into 2026, Zander’s brand of declarative, clenched-fist raps has never been more relevant.
PROJECT 2025: Minnesotan Music Meeting The Moment
The Twin Cities metro area is now an international news mainstay with a notorious portfolio of human rights violations caught on video in the past decade. Most notably, the murders of George Floyd and Renee Good at the hands of law enforcement broke the world’s perception of the USA in a way that has not yet been fixed. Considering these landmark events, other extrajudicial killings by police, and the military occupation of Minneapolis, there has been a relative lack of music from Minnesota documenting the local viewpoint. It makes Zander, an American’s PROJECT 2025 all the more valuable — its perspective is as local as it is global.
There aren’t many songs that take on fascism, racism, private prisons, weed smokers who can’t hang, and billionaires all in the same breath. Thankfully, we have Zander’s “Mad Enough” to set the tone on PROJECT 2025 in a confrontational grunge rap effort (the more visceral loosey “Violence Chose Me” accomplishes much of the same). Beyond that brash highlight, PROJECT 2025 manages to package the cerebral in very accessible two and four-bar doses that work to inform, unite, and fight.
I just wanna start with an affirmation /
Fuck a vote, I don’t blame half the nation /
Just a few who don’t care for me and you /
People who use we the people without hesitation
– Zander, an American, “My Fellow Americans”
Music For The Daily Grind of an Empire in Decline
It’s not enough for Zander to rap about the people and events that will be in future textbooks. What makes PROJECT 2025 shine is the depth of its perspective with a runtime of under 15 minutes. The EP takes you in and out of beefing with HR at dead end jobs, going broke paying for daycare, and loaded moments at red lights when your car is mere feet away from a homeless person.
To Zander, the surveillance state, wage slavery, and the housing crisis are not abstract concepts — they are real things he and hundreds of millions of others combat every day. With a thoughtful balance of dread and motivation, Zander, an American allows these realities to power his music. PROJECT 2025 seizes listener attention and rewards it with ideas and mantras for people to use in their daily battles against a world that makes the average person suffer.
Support Zander, an American — Listen To PROJECT 2025 Now
Listen to PROJECT 2025 via the music streaming platform of your choice. Subscribe to the ATC Sound YouTube channel to watch Zander’s latest music videos. Learn more about Zander, an American via his ATC Sound artist page.
Lastly, support ATC Sound’s independent music journalism and artist development by subscribing to our email list and joining us on Patreon.
