Flatbush Zombies: Hip-hop is holding the opinions of outsiders way too high – NME

Flatbush Zombies new track Afterlife sees the Brooklyn rap trio team up with James Blake for the first of a number of collaborative tracks. Over the UK producers sinister synths and bone-chilling bass, broken up by a silvery and celestial piano arrangement, the Zombies wax lyrical about winning and sinning as they try to maintain morality in the face of impending doom.

We caught up with Meechy Darko, Erick The Architect and Zombie Juice to discuss working with Blake, the Black Lives Matter movement and their thoughts on the shifting culture of hip-hop.

Erick: Ive been a fan of James for quite some time. I remember hearing I Never Learnt To Share and being like, Damn, who the hell is this guy? Then he did an interview and shouted us out, so I reached out to him and we started to text. From there, he came to see us perform at The Novo in L.A. and then I invited him to see [Tyler, The Creators] Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival with us. We cut some songs together and then agreed wed go back to New York for a week to meet the other two guys and make this project.

Erick: I dont wanna talk too much about it because I dont wanna put a deadline on something, but I will say that weve recorded about 20 songs with him. So its definitely not an EP, its something larger, and I think it will be revered as the Zombies next album.

Erick:Well, James did a heavy load but myself and Dominic [Maker from Mount Kimbie] pitched in with production. Its all of us really collaborating, you know? So its like one of us would give an idea and wed try to build around it. A lot of the songs were created that way. I might have started it and James finished it or vice versa.

Meech: He really understands voices and where they should be placed. There was one verse I did where I came off mad aggressive as usual and he was like, I think you should just calm it down a little bit, and I was like, Nah, I wanna talk to these n***as, bro. Then I started doing the verse again and I looked at him and I said, Alright, Im gonna do it your way. And I did it his way and it actually came out sounding a lot better because he just knows how best to utilise your voice. I dont think people fully understand the capabilities of that man, especially when it comes to making and producing for hip-hop artists.

Erick: I wrote it over a year ago, so its sadly ironic that it can come out now and have so much relevance with whats going on; these brutalities by these cops are not new. It was something that was on my mind then and us putting it out now is really a flag in history to say, Damn, the Zombies really know whats going on. And you can attach it to any of these murders unfortunately.

Meech:Yeah, I went outside and did my thing. Theres many layers to the discussion regarding the protests: whos organising it? What are we out here for? Where are the leaders at? We could have a whole interview on that shit alone, but I definitely went out to support and be a part of it. We also donated a lot.

Erick:We donated the proceeds from our last EP [now, more than ever], so we didnt make any money off it. It was $150,000, I think.

Meech:We sacrificed our last project for the people.

Erick:Music is becoming like tourism in the way that people just buy a ticket, hop into a place, absorb what they want and then go back home. I was talking about hip-hop music but I said music because I guess theres a bigger issue.

We come from a time where music was your life there was no touring it. It was where you lived, it was your home. Music shouldnt be something thats manipulated. Home is music; tourism is vacation. Music is a very serious thing to me because it saved all of our lives. We have respect for the culture and the genre so much that we would never treat it like tourism; we know where we live.

Flatbush Zombies: (L-R) Erick The Architect, Meecy Darko, Zombie Juice

Meech: Its because hip-hop is the biggest genre of music right now. There are so many onlookers and I think were holding the opinions of outsiders way too high. Because back in the day, guess what? There were a bunch of people who hated 2Pac and Snoop [Dogg], and people thought their music was disgusting. But theyre legends now and theyre some of the most important people who ever lived.

Juice:Its sad, because theyll be so critical of the guys that really put a lot behind their music and then theyre less critical about the people that just go out there and say kill n***as and fuck bitches on every song. Its nonsense and you just cant buy into that shit.

Meech:Its because theyre the outsiders. They dont understand the street code, they dont understand shit. Theyre not from this world. Theyve never read a Don Diva magazine. They dont know anything about indictments or how any of this shit works. Its about right and wrong. Its about justice, law and order, and due process. I dont want no n***a shooting no woman at all. Any n***a that shoots a woman is a pussy. We do not condone that. Any n***a that condones that shit and works with people like that and openly makes fun of it and thinks its a joke, we dont fuck with that. I only think its a joke to them because its a black woman getting shot. These black women and black artists are just entertainment to them. These n***as dont love Meg.

Meech: The only way Id do that shit is if me, Erick and Juice are in our own hyperbolic tank and theres scientists there to make sure its spotless and the most perfect show ever so that we can say we did the best mother fucking show ever and no one ever got sick and it was 100% germ-free, but I dont got the money for that so its not happening.

Flatbush Zombies new single Afterlife featuring James Blake is out now

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Flatbush Zombies: Hip-hop is holding the opinions of outsiders way too high - NME