Flatbush Zombies (stylized as Flatbush ZOMBiES) is an American hip hop group from the Flatbush section of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, formed in 2010. The group is composed of rappers

Meechy Darko Demetri Simms, better known by his stage name Meechy Darko, is an American rapper and songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as a member of the hip hop trio Flatbush Zombies, with whom he began his rapping career with his longtime f ...

Zombie Juice Antonio Lewis (born July 8, 1990), better known by his stage name Zombie Juice, is an American rapper from Brooklyn, New York. He attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn. He is one third of the hip hop trio Flatbush Zombies. Along with his rapp ...

and

Erick Arc Elliott Erick Elliott (born August 12, 1988), better known as Erick Arc Elliott or Erick the Architect, is an American rapper, singer, artist and record producer from Brooklyn, New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most popu ...

, with Elliott also serving as their regular

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. The trio are part of the

East Coast hip hop East Coast hip hop is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in New York City during the 1970s. Hip hop is recognized to have originated and evolved first in the Bronx, New York City. In contrast to other styles, East Coast hip ...

supergroup

Beast Coast Beast Coast is an American hip hop collective and supergroup from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2012 by the members of Pro Era, Flatbush Zombies, and the Underachievers. The collective has been on multiple tours together, and their debut group ...

, with fellow Brooklyn-based rap groups

The Underachievers The Underachievers are an American hip hop duo from Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 2011, the duo is composed of rappers AKTHESAVIOR and Issa Gold. American record producer Flying Lotus signed the duo to his Brainfeeder record label ...

and

Pro Era Pro Era (short for The Progressive Era) is an American hip hop collective group from Brooklyn, New York. The group is a collective of rappers and record producers that includes East Coast rappers Joey Badass, CJ Fly, Kirk Knight, Nyck Cautio ...

. Flatbush Zombies have collaborated with various artists, including RZA,

ASAP Mob ASAP Mob (stylized as A$AP Mob, ASAP being an acronym for "Always Strive And Prosper") is an American hip hop collective formed in 2006 in Harlem, New York City, that consists of rappers (most of whom carry the "ASAP" moniker), record producers, ...

, Z-Breezy,

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide ...

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip hop group Three 6 Mafia, established i ...

, Danny Brown,

Action Bronson Ariyan Arslani (born December 2, 1983), professionally known as Action Bronson, is an American rapper, songwriter, chef, wrestler, exotic olive oil taster, and television presenter. Born and raised in Queens, New York, he embarked on his musical ...

Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire Hugh Anthony Allison (born 1986), better known by his stage name Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire (often censored as Mr. MFN eXquire or simply eXquire), is an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he debuted with the release of his first mixtape, ...

Tech N9ne Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two ...

, and Anthony Flammia among others. They have performed at music festivals such as The Hudson Project, JMBLYA,

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

Pemberton Music Festival Pemberton Music Festival was an annual four-day music festival that took place near Mount Currie in Pemberton, British Columbia. Produced by Huka Entertainment, the 2016 event took place on July 14–17. The festival features multiple stage ...

Afropunk Festival Afropunk Festival is an annual arts festival that features music, film, fashion, and art produced by alternative black artists. The Afropunk Festival began in 2005, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Afropunk Festivals have also been ...

, Olly Mac Sesh, Paid Dues, North Coast Music Festival,

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

Rolling Loud Rolling Loud is an international hip hop music festival held in the United States, Europe, Australia and Canada. Established in 2015, it is "one of the biggest rap-only festivals in the world" according to ''Complex'', while ''Billboard'' called ...

in Miami, and Wireless in London. The group grew in popularity through two

mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

s and several

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

s, leading to their 2016 debut studio album, '' 3001: A Laced Odyssey''.

History

Background and formation

Friends since grade school, all three members were born and raised in the Flatbush section of

. Erick and Meechy Darko are of Jamaican descent. Demetri Simms (

), Antonio Lewis (

) and Erick Elliott ( The Architect) first bonded over the Japanese anime ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

'' and wrestling. During their teenage years they began experimenting with

psychedelic drug Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...

s, such as

psilocybin mushroom Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocybe'', '' ...

s and

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

. Zombie Juice, along with fellow Flatbush native

Issa Gold Marlon Fung (born July 26, 1990), better known by his stage name Issa Gold, is an American rapper from Brooklyn, New York. He is one half of the hip hop duo The Underachievers, along with AK. In 2014 the rapper considered leaving a career in ra ...

the Underachievers The Underachievers are an American hip hop duo from Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 2011, the duo is composed of rappers AKTHESAVIOR and Issa Gold. American record producer Flying Lotus signed the duo to his Brainfeeder record label ...

(Erick did not participate), specifically started looking into the

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', ...

lifestyle. Meechy Darko said the first time he took psilocybin mushrooms, he underwent

Ego death Ego death is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity". The term is used in various intertwined contexts, with related meanings. Jungian psychology uses the synonymous term psychic death, referring to a fundamental transformation of the psych ...

and had a sort of rebirth of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

Mixtapes and rise in popularity (2010–2013)

Erick Arc Elliott, who had been making his own solo music, decided to bring the group together musically around 2010. Their first club performance took place in 2012, at 307 in Waterloo. The group's popularity grew after releasing the "Thug Waffle" video on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Later in the year, Flatbush Zombies released their debut

, titled ''D.R.U.G.S.'', which stands for "Death and Reincarnation Under God's Supervision." In 2012, Flatbush Zombies were featured on the song "Just Blowin' in the Wind" with

Wu Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affi ...

's RZA for the soundtrack to RZA's film ''

The Man with the Iron Fists ''The Man with the Iron Fists'' is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th cen ...

''. " In 2013, the group collaborated with fellow Brooklyn rap group

, on the single "No Religion". On July 29, 2013, Flatbush Zombies released a YouTube video announcing their second mixtape, ''BetterOffDEAD'', which was released at 9:11 PM on September 11, 2013. Along with "MRAZ," the singles "Palm Trees" and "222", are included on the nineteen track mixtape ''BetterOffDEAD''. Though Elliott is the main producer, Harry Fraud and Obey City also provide production on the mixtape. Danny Brown and

appear on the tracks "Drug Parade" and "Club Soda" respectively. The mixtape was met with critical acclaim. It would end up being ranked at number 17 on '' XXL''s list of the best mixtapes of 2013. A remixed version of My Team Supreme featuring

Bodega Bamz Nathaniel De La Rosa (born March 17, 1985), known professionally as Bodega Bamz, is of Dominican/Puerto Rican decent rapper/actor from Spanish Harlem, New York. De La Rosa first attracted attention for his 2012 mixtape, ''Strictly 4 My P.A.P.I. ...

was featured in

NBA Live 15 ''NBA Live 15'' is a basketball simulation video game for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released on October 28, 2014, in North America and on October 31, 2014, in Europe. It features Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers as its cover ...

. Flatbush Zombies also released the video for "MRAZ", a track off the group's mixtape ''BetterOffDEAD''.

Clockwork Indigo and ''3001: A Laced Odyssey'' (2014–2018)

On February 13, 2014, Flatbush Zombies released a new song, "LiT". Flatbush Zombies revealed to ''XXL'' that their EP, ''It's All a Matter of Perspective'', had been scrapped. Instead the group told ''XXL'' to "expect an album this year." In September 2014, it was announced that Flatbush Zombies would be touring with fellow Brooklyn-based rap group

, and they would be collectively known as Clockwork Indigo. The two groups subsequently released a collaborative song titled "Butterfly Effect," followed by an EP titled '' Clockwork Indigo'', on October 17, 2014. They claim that they came up with the idea of forming Clockwork Indigo, from a "strange LSD trip while watching ''

A Clockwork Orange ''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to: * ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess ** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel *** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...

''". During the Clockwork Indigo

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

, the group collectively wore white clothing as did Alex's gang in the film ''A Clockwork Orange''. On March 15, 2015, Flatbush Zombies released a new single on SoundCloud titled "Red Eye to Paris" featuring UK Grime artist

Skepta Chief Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British-Nigerian grime MC, rapper and record producer. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became foundin ...

. On September 11, 2015, at 9:11 pm EST, the group released a new single and socially charged music video on YouTube titled "Blacktivist". On January 11, 2016, the group released the single "Glorious Thugs". On the same day, the group announced that their debut album titled '' 3001: A Laced Odyssey'', would be released March 11, 2016. On February 5, 2016, they released the first single from ''3001: A Laced Odyssey'' titled "Bounce", followed by the official music video on February 8. On March 10, 2016, Flatbush Zombies released the second single from the album, titled "This Is It". The following day, they released the album. ''3001: A Laced Odyssey'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 7 reviews. The album sold 28,000 copies in the first week, debuting at number 10 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

''Vacation in Hell'' (2018–present)

On February 23, 2018, Flatbush Zombies released the first single off of their second studio album, ''

Vacation in Hell ''Vacation in Hell'' is the second studio album by the American hip hop trio, Flatbush Zombies. The album was released on April 6, 2018, through their own independent record label, Glorious Dead Recordings. The album received acclaim from critics ...

''. The project was released on April 6, 2018, under Glorious Dead Recordings. The album spawned a worldwide tour, ''See You In Hell Tour'', that started off on April 14 at the 2018 Coachella Music Festival and ended on June 16. In promotion for the album, the trio appeared on the nationally syndicated talk show ''The Breakfast Club'' as well as performing freestyles for

Funk Flex Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1968), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Hot 9 ...

on his radio show. On June 5, 2020, the group released an EP, "Now, More Than Ever", in the wake of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

. The project was supported by the single "Iamlegend". The EP debuted and peaked at number 168 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The group contributed a remix of the Metallica song " The Unforgiven", featuring DJ Scratch, to the charity tribute album ''

The Metallica Blacklist ''The Metallica Blacklist'' is a various artists tribute album featuring covers of every track from Metallica's 1991 self-titled album (commonly known as ''The Black Album''). The collection was assembled in conjunction with the original album' ...

'', released in September 2021.

Discography

Studio albums

Collaborative albums

EPs

Mixtapes

Singles

"Day Of The Dead" releases

Guest appearances

Music videos

References

External links

*
Flatbush Zombies on Their Psychedelic Hip-Hop ‘Odyssey’
at ''Rolling Stone'' {{Authority control Hip hop groups from New York City Musical groups established in 2010 Musical groups from Brooklyn American musical trios Underground hip hop groups People from Flatbush, Brooklyn 2010 establishments in New York City