Steve 'Flash' Juon“This fan told me her parents said I sound like the Devil
To me I sound like a poor black kid from the ghetto” – Meechy Darko
The world wasn’t ready for the Flatbush Zombies when they released “3001: A Laced Odyssey” in 2016. They’re still not. Zombie Juice, Meechy Darko and rapper/producer Erick the Architect had been friends since childhood and true to their name the threesome all hail from the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. From Chubb Rock to Talib Kweli to Bernie Sanders, you already know Flatbush, and if you didn’t then you’re welcome. It’s historically a place where art and culture intersect and creativity is born. It’s also where the group’s members first experimented with psychedelic drugs, and whether or not you agree with drug use in general, you can hear the way it opened their minds musically and intellectually. Tell me “R.I.P.C.D.” wasn’t one of most prescient rap songs in modern times. Who thought we’d be nostalgic for compact discs? That shit’s real now.
“RIP to the CD, can’t even play my hits
Cause new computers ship without the means to play the shit
We love the boosted speed, we love the memory
It got me feeling like we’re nothing like we used to be” – Erick the Architect
When “3001” was released the Zombies were very purposefully swimming upstream. The trends in New York generally and rap music broadly were all heading down the river toward mediocrity, and the lowest common denominators were debased thuggery sung painfully. None of the Flatbush Zombies are singers, and none of them are debasing themselves with their bars. At times the journey might be a little strange (“shout out from the middle of the fucking country”) but it’s a fully realized dialogue between the audience and the listeners.
“I’m spitting bars like a jail cell” – Zombie Juice
It’s honestly been hard for me to write about this album because it meant something to me PERSONALLY. 2016 was a hard year for me and songs like “This Is It” were a lifeline that was thrown out across the ocean of land between Brooklyn and Omaha. When I wondered if hip-hop music was going to be okay… when I wondered if I was going to be okay… I just needed to listen to “This Is It” to know everything was alright. We might have nothing in common in our background or upbringing but these Zombies were still speaking to me, speaking a truth that I could understand and feel deeply.
“Form your business in the name
something unique like a slang
Make a difference, make a change
But ain’t no puppets on a string” – Erick the Architect
Don’t mistake my affection for the Flatbush Zombies as somehow canonizing them for sainthood. They like taking drugs, getting their dicks sucked, and making fat bankrolls of cash. The lifestyle of a successful rapper (or rocker), ya heard? It’s not offensive to me and presumably it’s not to you either if you’re here. What surprised me both then and now is the moments of clarity that shined through their lifestyle, when any individual member recognizes they are speaking to an audience that wants to hear them succeed and would like to know how to achieve it too. Erick is a phenomenal producer, Meechy has one of the most distinctive voices in rap, and Juice surprises me over and over again when he sneaks in gems. “3001: A Laced Odyssey” revels in its uniqueness while remaining surprisingly accessible, and we shall not see its like again for another decade.