Texan Mosaic

by DOMINICK PUENTE//Staff Writer

The up-and-coming trio, Flatbush Zombies, released their debut album in early March, and it is gaining ground swell.

After multiple mixtapes throughout the past few years, Flatbush Zombies released their 12-song album, “3001: A Laced Odyssey.”

The group features three members, Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice, and Erick Arc Elliott.

The new album shows their realistic and violent lyric styling, along with their tag-team style rapping. Throughout the album, all three artists alternate positions on the songs and manage to change the style of their raps, keeping listeners on their toes and not expecting what the next song will sound like.

I feel that is the best way to create an album. Even though Flatbush Zombies has a psychedelic vibe to their songs, the entire album has various shifts in beats and solid melodies, giving it better variety for different music lovers.

As the album begins with the first few songs, such as “The Odyssey,” and “Bounce,” there is a faster and more hard rap beat. Although they have an increased tempo within the songs, the group managed to stay within their usual solid lyrics, keeping the song dark and violent.

“Bounce” became a popular song that created a solid buzz in the mainstream industry with a trap-music vibe that is gaining a lot of attention in the rap and underground rap community. All three artists do a fantastic job of spreading out the amount of time in their sections of the song while creating smooth transitions.

Toward the middle of the album, songs such as “Fly Away,” “R.I.P.C.D,” and “Smoke Break” showed their true roots of lyrical writing, along with their style of beats. These songs showed their slow, smooth and gloomy lyrics, giving them a dark profile. Some of the verses from the group can be hard to follow throughout the album. However, that did not discourage me from enjoying the songs all the way through.

The group does include some vulgar and explicit material in all 12 songs. But the way Flatbush Zombies handled the material keeps each song amusing and interesting at the same time. The music is respectable, enjoyable and gives off a good vibe. 

I found the hard-hitting songs to be my most favorite, such as, “Ascension,” and “Good Grief.” Many rap artists can produce hard-hitting lyrical songs, but Flatbush Zombies goes the extra mile in talking about various situations, such as the life of a street hustler and the things they have seen throughout their time together since they were children.

Most songs on the rap scene have similar themes, such as the use of drugs, partying, gang-related events and women. But the Flatbush Zombies find a good way to incorporate these things into their songs without being direct. Dark metaphors and vague verses kept me listening and trying to understand the real meaning of the song.

This album should be able to please a wide variety of music listeners. The songs are put together well and have some thought in each and every verse. I find the album and rap group to be great, as their music is entertaining and joyful. Even though their music is not club oriented and intended to hype people up, there are a few songs on the album that I would listen to no matter the mood I am in.

I would recommend this album to listeners who care for a deep and dark meaning behind music. Even though some of the songs have a fast beat, this type of rap music is not made for mainstream listeners.

I rate this album an 4 out of 5 on how well the songs are produced and lyrical content. Overall, it is a great album to listen to all the way through.