Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and The Architect – better known as the Flatbush Zombies – grew up with death on every corner. But theirs was the death that snatches the souls of places, not people: gentrification. Back in the 2000s while the Zombies were teenagers, the once vibrant community of primarily Caribbean immigrants and African-Americans in Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY became home to the massive Barclays Center, and with it came thousands of evictions for Flatbush residents. As they do, things only worsened from there.
Though rap success had taken them all out of Flatbush long before, the legacy of iconic emcees like Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, Shyne and many others who’d grown up there was suddenly being paved over. So the Flatbush Zombies preserved that legacy – and that of all the trailblazing rappers before them – the best way they knew how: in song.
“Headstone” is that tribute, and honestly, it’s equal parts eulogy. The Flatbush Zombies are participants in a rap genre known as horrorcore that essentially blends hip-hop with the imagery of death metal. And from the video’s opening scene of a dead body in an abandoned parking lot, to the song’s first foreboding strains with a creepy woman’s laughter backing the introduction, “Headstone” is completely entrenched in darkness. Not to mention that the majority of the rappers referenced in the song are dead.
It’s a key detail that actually makes the song itself a journey through hip-hop history with entirely too many references for me to list for you here. You’ll hear some pretty famous lyricists like Lil Wayne and Biggie name-dropped directly, but Flatbush Zombies true skill lies in how effortlessly they’re able to weave a whole series of rap references together while maintaining their own style, and of course, lyrical coherence. Take for instance one of Meechy’s lines: “Write this on my Death Certificate, I Gave You Power / 21 Questions like “Who Shot Ya?” I shot ya!” In just those couple of bars, he shouts out Ice Cube, NAS, 50 Cent, Biggie and LL Cool J. By the end, Flatbush Zombies have delivered a masterpiece composed from the work of rap’s great masters themselves.
Not all of their songs are this dark, but Meechy Darko admits that during the writing process, “the only way for me to face my demons is to go into my consciousness and search through all of those uncomfortable thoughts.” Hope you’re not too squeamish.
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘:
“Now your favorite rapper name on a headstone
Too late—he already dead”