Lexie Zielke (aka lexiconZZZ), is the first staff member to be featured in our series of staff-brewed beers. Her beer, a West Coast Pale Ale called “A Little Hustle” is an homage to the hustler in all of us and will be released during Thursday night’s “A Little Hustle Hip Hop Night.” Read on to learn more about our multi-talented social media manager, bartender, rapper, and now brewer.
Career in Breweries
After growing up in Hillsborough, NC, Lexie left the state to attend the University of South Carolina where she graduated with a dual bachelors degree from the Darla Moore School of Business in Marketing and Management. The pandemic brought her back to NC where she joined the original staff of Heyday Brewing just before they opened. Her next step led her to become the Marketing Manager at Vicious Fishes Brewery where she oversaw their social media, marketing, and events. From here, the incredible duo of Ian and Harmony inspired her with the vision of their future brewery. She joined their team to open Blackbird Brewery in Wake Forest at the beginning of 2023.
The Music
During business school, Lexie found herself yearning for an outlet for her artistic side. Only after moving back to NC did she decide to pursue writing and rap in a more serious way. Her music spans multiple rap subgenres from alternative hip-hop to pop rap to emo rap to conscious rap. She takes pride in being her own manager/creative director and executes her music through her very own Medusa Management LLC. Her lyrical range can be witnessed on singles from the Virtual Delirium mixtape, and the songs releasing from the Popped Culture project this fall.
The Moniker
Lexie crafted “lexiconZZZ” from a couple different inspirations. The word lexicon utilizes her name while also serving as a representation of what she does as a rapper. The songs she delivers are in a sense her vocabulary, her language, her way of speaking.
The name “lexiconZZZ” represents all of her alter egos that get to shine through her art.
- lex: At her core, she is “lex”, simply herself with very human experiences she sometimes touches on in her music content.
- icon: Rap gives her a platform that has allowed her to find inner confidence as the “icon.”
- ZZZ: represents that intangible thing we have sleeping inside all of us, that thing we can be and achieve if we dream it.
Lexie’s two greatest passions in life are rap and beer (like any other simple generation Z gal). She explains, “I’m incredibly lucky to find myself in a position where I am getting to explore both these loves simultaneously. Getting the opportunity to brew my own beer is truly the next step on my journey in the brewing industry. “A Little Hustle” West Coast Pale Ale is an homage to the hard work it has taken to be at this exact moment in my life. This brewing experience coupled with a work family that supports my other true passion, is something invaluable and irreplaceable.”
Join us Thursday 6:30-9:00 PM for a night of Hip Hop performances from the following artists!
lexiconZZZ (@lexiconZZZ)
Big Mooky (@919mooky)
King Wil (@therealkingwil)
Tweekeen (@tweekeen919)
The evening will also serve as a song release event, as lexiconZZZ debuts the first single “Work” off her upcoming Popped Culture project.
