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This album came out on March 11th this year. First of all, that album cover is absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in person on the physical CD. I’m gonna be adding a “Best Album Cover” category to the BCTV Hip Hop Awards this year, and I can already tell that it’s gonna be hard to beat this one. If it doesn’t win, I’m sure it’ll be the runner-up. If I had that category last year, Czarface would’ve won for Every Hero Needs A Villain. That cover was amazing. Anyway, this is the first official album from Flatbush Zombies. I know I listened to their mixtape, Better Off Dead, but I can’t really remember whether or not I liked it. I was introduced to them when I heard Bath Salts from that A$AP Mob mixtape, Lord$ Never Worry. I’m more familiar with them because of that Day Of The Dead series they’ve been doing. They did it in 2014, and I’m pretty sure they started doing it again in 2015. It was great. Hopefully this album is as good as that shit. I’ve heard a few promotional singles for this project, and they were pretty good, so I’m expecting this to be great. Every track is produced by The Architect.

Track 1: The Odyssey

This beat is very grandiose so far. Meechy Darko is spittin’ the hook right now. Goddamn. This is so fucking dope. This beat is dope af, and so is the hook. What is that? Are those record scratches? They sound so dope. Zombie Juice is on the first verse. This is really fucking good so far. This is like the pure essence of Flatbush Zombies. If you’re a fan, there’s no reason for you not to love this. “How you hatin’ on us, but claim the king of NY? / These niggas ain’t fit to be the king, go ask Jadakiss why.” Juice is making a lot of allusions to legendary rappers. “Imma everyday struggle ’til I get to the top / I study Em, B.I.G., Tech N9ne, Tupac.” I’m really glad he listed Tech N9ne in there. I feel like he rarely gets the credit he deserves. I’m really enjoying this verse from Juice. He’s my least favorite member of Flatbush Zombies, but I think he did a great job on here. Maybe it’s just because I’m really excited for this album. I don’t even really know why. I’m not that big of a Flatbush Zombies fan. Maybe it has something to do with the album cover… I REALLY like that cover. Anyway, Erick Arc Elliot is on the second verse. He did his thing. I think he had a better verse than Juice, but I was more impressed by Juice because he ended up doing a better job than I thought he would. This beat is so fuckin’ dope. Meechy’s goin’ in now. YES. He’s using that grimy ass, dark ass delivery and it sounds fucking amazing. I love this shit. “This fan told me her parents said I sound like the devil / To me I sound like a poor black kid from the ghetto.” I guess you guys probably won’t get that line if you don’t know what Meechy’s voice sounds like when he’s rapping. He has a really harsh, grimy, rough sounding delivery. It’s so fuckin’ dope. “Bitch, I’m a mixed message greatest hits with a hint of 2Pacalypse / And I feed my dog gun powder, carve crucifx on hollow tips / I do not exist / All this weed why I need a therapist.” Meechy fuckin’ murdered his verse. I fucking love this shit. This song is dope af to me. 5/5

Track 2: Bounce

This was the first single released for this album. It came out on February 5th. I know I heard it when it came out, and I know that I liked it because it was on my schedule, but I really don’t remember what it sounds like. It’s starting now. This beat is dope. Meechy did his thing on the first verse. Juice’s verse was fine. His flow was a little shaky at first, but his verse wasn’t bad. Erick did his thing. It’s over. The song just ended. It’s dope. It doesn’t really blow me away. It’s just good. The beat was cold, and each MC had a good verse. I fuck with it. I’m just not overly impressed. It’s dope tho. I’m gonna check out the music video now. Oh, I remember this. I’ve already seen the music video. It’s really dope. Honestly, the music video is more interesting than the actual song. I still fuck with the song tho. It’s dope. HAHAHA. Meechy pistol whipped some guy in the video, and he was like “Aaah! Daisy, help me up now. Knocked the Wednesday off of a nigga!” Lmao. The music video is awesome. It makes me like the song even more. I fuck with this shit. It’s dope. 4/5

Track 3: R.I.P.C.D.

This beat is dope af. Erick Arc Elliott’s on the first verse. His verse was pretty dope. The hook’s cool. He’s rhymin’ about how CD’s aren’t really a thing anymore. “R.I.P. to the CD can’t even play my hits / ‘Cause new computer shit without the means to play the shit.” Fuck, man. That makes me sad. I like having the physical copy of an album. It’s true tho. My computer doesn’t have a disc drive. It sucks. Kanye recently said that he’s never gonna make a physical CD again. All of his albums will only have digital releases now. That’s some more bullshit. I knew this was gonna happen eventually tho. Anyway, Juice is goin’ in now. His verse is alright I guess. His delivery is kinda corny to me. I wasn’t in love with his flow either. It was alright tho. Meechy’s goin’ in now. “LSD drops in my iris / Tire mark, police sirens / No guidance / The belly of the beast is where I reside in / Grimy and vibrant / Like Busta Rhymes, in the early 90’s / Click boom, your head blew like you play for the Giants.” He killed his verse. I fuck with this song, but I’m still not amazed like I was with the first track. It’s dope tho. 4/5

Track 4: A Spike Lee Joint Feat. Anthony Flammia

This beat is alright. I like the primary loop, but the percussion is really underwhelming. The hook is honestly boring as fuck. I would probably like this more if I was stoned. It’s not really doin’ much for me right now tho. Erick’s verse was cool. Juice is goin’ in now. He sounds really good over this production. I actually liked his verse more than Erick’s. Meechy didn’t get a verse on this one. The hook wasn’t really doin’ much for me, but I liked the verses. Juice really shines on this chill production. It’s just a real laid back track. Anthony Flammia’s feature wasn’t necessary. He’s just on the outro. All he does is laugh and say “If I can get get on the album and shit it’d be insane.” He sounds like he’s really fuckin’ high. I don’t know… I’m not really into this track. I definitely don’t think it’s bad, but it just isn’t that good. It’s boring to me. It’s alright I guess. 3/5

Track 5: Fly Away

This beat is really dope. Oh God… Meechy Darko’s singin’ on this shit. I guess he isn’t a terrible singer, but I don’t know why this… I mean… I wouldn’t ever wanna listen to this. I would’ve preferred if he just rapped on this shit because this beat is really dope. It’s a solo track. I’m not ever gonna play this shit again. It’s cool tho. I mean, it’s not, but it’s not terrible. The production is great. I guess the lyrics are kinda cool. I just don’t see why anyone would wanna hear Meechy singin’ like this. He’s not a good singer. Again, he isn’t terrible, but he’s definitely not good enough for me to want to hear a whole song of this shit. I’m not feelin’ it. This is wack to me. 2/5

Track 6: Ascension

This beat is fucking incredible. Holy fucking shit. This hook from Meechy Darko is insane. He’s whispering and screaming. It sounds really nightmarish. This shit is fuckin’ crazy. It kinda reminds me of Live From Hell, except it’s not as loud and it has a slower pace. This is fucking crazy. This hook is insane. “I have ascended, I’m trying to be better than God / What the fuck am I saying? I ain’t even enter my prime / Taking over the world, we’ll do it one day at a time / Time is an illusion, I think that I’m losing my mind.” I feel like I’m listening to Satan. This is so fucking dope. It’s just one verse from Meechy. This is crazy. I’m so happy that this song exists. I love this shit. This is great. Meechy killed this shit. This is everything I love about Meechy Darko all in one song. This is incredible. Uh… I’m not really in love with the way this song ended… I like the music during the outro, but I just wish it was part of a separate track. It doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the song. It’s just a long ass instrumental outro. The music is really fucking smooth. It reminds me of the intro & outro to Nastradamus—A.K.A. the only good thing about Nastradamus. It just doesn’t fit in with Meechy’s part at all. I like this song, but that outro really hurt this track for me. It definitely decreased the replay value. It’s still good tho. 4/5

Track 7: Smoke Break (Interlude)

This beat is really smooth. I like the production, but that’s pretty much the only thing I like about this track. Erick & Juice are just singin’ about getting high. I’m pretty sure that I’d love this if I was high, but I’m not, so this isn’t doin’ shit for me. This production is really good, but other than that this is wack to me. I mean, there’s not really anything terrible about this track. I’m just not really into it personally. It was kind of a relaxing break from the rest of this more energetic album. That’s all I can say for this one tho. I’m not feelin’ it. This is wack to me. 2/5

Track 8: Trade-Off

This beat is dope af. It has the same mood as the previous beat. It just has a little more energy, and is more fleshed out. It’s fucking incredible. Erick’s on the hook, and the first verse. He did his thing. It wasn’t amazing or anything, but I enjoyed it a lot. The beat just switched up for Juice’s verse. Wow. Goddamn. This production is fucking incredible. This new beat is really dope for Juice’s style. This is so fucking good. Seriously, this is on another level. Goddamn. Juice is rapping his motherfucking ass off. His flow was really impressive on this shit. He was rappin’ like a fuckin’ ninja on this shit. The beat switched up again for Meechy’s verse. This is fucking incredible. I cannot believe this production. This is one of the best beats I’ve heard all year. Meech killed this shit. Everybody did. I love how dynamic this production is. Each verse just got better than the last. I definitely fuck with this shit. This is dope af. 5/5

Track 9: Good Grief Feat. Diamanté

This beat is so good. I fuck with this hook and Erick’s first verse was dope. This is really smooth. Juice is on the second verse. He had kind of a melodic delivery, but I actually enjoyed it. He sounded really good over this production. His verse was dope. Meechy isn’t on here. After the last recital of the hook, the beat switches up, and Diamanté starts singin’ the outro. It’s so fucking smooth. I fuck with this shit. This is dope af. 5/5

Track 10: New Phone, Who Dis

Erick Arc Elliott is on the first verse. It’s cool. I’m not really amazed tho. This beat is cool I guess. It’s definitely not as good as a lot of the other beats. The hook is cool. Once the base comes in the beat gets a lot more interesting. I love the way they incorporated a buzzing phone in the hook. It sounds dope. If my mama hears this shit she’ll be like “WHO’S PHONE IS RINGING? IS THAT MY PHONE?” Meechy’s goin’ in now. Wow. Erick is a really talented producer. All of these beats are really dynamic. I spoke way too soon on this beat. It’s evolved so much already and I’m only a quarter of the way through this song. “Only fuck her if she legal / I don’t break the law like Tyga.” HAHAHAHA. This verse from Meechy is so good. “You can blow my dick and eat my excrement.” Juice’s verse was alright. I enjoyed the song tho. The beat was dope. Erick & Juice had two decent verses, but Meech really went in. I feel like he’s been stealing the show throughout this whole project. If Meechy wasn’t here I don’t know how much I’d like this. I fuck with this song tho. It’s dope. Damn. That guy on the outro… Was that Bobby Shmurda? Nah… It couldn’t be… It sounded like him tho… Whoever it was used Bobby Shmurda’s ad-lib. Whatever. It’s probably someone else. I fuck with this song. It’s dope. 4/5

Track 11: This Is It

This beat is cool. I’m honestly starting to get kinda bored of this production. It’s all been very smooth so far. Erick’s on the hook. It’s pretty good. Not amazing. It’s cool tho. Juice is on the first verse. It was actually really dope. I really enjoyed his verse. His flow was great. Erick’s on the second verse. He did his thing. His flow was pretty dope too. Meechy Darko killed that last verse. I don’t really have much to say about this one. It’s just three dope verses from each MC over a decent beat. The hook wasn’t anything special, but it did it’s job. I fuck with this. This is dope to me. I’m gonna watch the music video now… It was cool I guess. There aren’t really any truly unique moments that help it stand out among most other average Hip Hop music videos, but I still enjoyed it. 4/5

Track 12: Your Favorite Rap Song

This track is 13 minutes long. Hopefully they manage to keep things interesting. It’s starting now. Erick’s on the first verse. He did his thing. The beat is dope af. Juice is on the hook. It’s alright. I guess. Erick has a second verse. It was dope. Juice is on the third verse. Woah. He was singing at the beginning of his verse, and it actually sounded pretty damn good. That was surprising. His singing on the hook is absolute dog shit compared to that. I mean, it wasn’t amazing, but it was much better than I expected it to be. Damn. He fuckin’ killed his verse. That’s easily his best verse on the whole album. He just went in for like 64 bars. That was dope af. Meechy’s goin’ in now. Goddamn. He fuckin’ killed that shit. He just went the fuck off. He spit 64 bars just like Juice. That was great. The song pretty much ends after seven minutes and twenty seconds, but there’s a bunch of voicemail calls from fans talkin’ about how much they love Flatbush Zombies. That didn’t need to be here. I’m finna have to cut out the voicemails with GarageBand. I fuck with the song tho. It’s dope. The hook definitely could’ve been better, and that outro decreases the replay value. I like the song tho. 4/5

Track +1: Blacktivist

The music video for this song was released on September 11th last year. I guess it was just a loose track for the fans. The beat is alright. I kinda dislike it. It’s not terrible tho. Meechy started the track off with the first verse. It was dope. It’s not very different from an average Meechy verse, but there are definitely some lines in there that relate more to the whole “blacktivist” theme. “Somebody tell Uncle Sam I want my reparations / 40 acres and a pearl white slave bitch / If that offends your race, bitch, well, I’ll give you a facelift.” Erick’s on the second verse. He did his thing. Zombie Juice definitely had the best verse tho. I love the idea behind this song, but they don’t actually say much about “blacktivism.” The music video is more politically charged than the song itself. It has a bunch of clips of instances of police brutality, such as the cases of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner & Jordan Davis. Then it shows all three of the zombies dressed up as ISIS members with a prisoner. Then Juice takes takes the bag off of the prisoner’s head and it’s Barack Obama. Yeah, I know. It was weird as hell ’cause Obama had the computer animated face. It just looked weird. I enjoyed it tho. The song itself wasn’t that good to me. I just think they could’ve done a better job staying on topic. It’s not wack tho. Just not that good. 3/5

Track +2: Glorious Thugs

This song was released as a promotional single on January 11th this year. It’s basically their version of Notorious Thugs by Biggie & The Bone Thugs. I briefly spoke about that song in my review of the Southpaw soundtrack. Why the fuck did I review that? Anyway, the beat is dope af. It uses the same piano loop and bassline as the original song. It’s basically just The Architect’s recreation of the original beat. Meechy’s on the first verse. He uses the same flow as Biggie. His verse was great. Of course Juice used Bizzy Bone’s flow since they have very similar voices. His flow kinda sucked. Well, it was only really one instance where he was really off beat. He tried to jam a few too many syllables into one line. The overall verse wasn’t terrible tho. Erick did his thing on the last verse. I guess this song’s alright. It’s definitely not bad. I’d really rather just listen to the original version from Biggie tho. 3/5

Final Thoughts:

This album is dope. There are some pretty glaring problems with it tho. I enjoyed the production for the most part, but I really wish it was a little more varied. I think that all of the Day Of The Dead songs together are better than these songs. All of the beats on this album sound pretty similar. There aren’t any beats on here that sound as good as Get Yours or Red Light, Green Light. Listen to Bounce & This Is It. Most of the other tracks on the album have that same smooth sound. The production just gets boring after a while. So that was pretty disappointing. As far as the actual rapping goes, Meechy stole the show. I’m listening to this project to hear Meechy Darko, not Juice. Juice & Erick aren’t even that bad. They just don’t stand out like Meechy at all. They were decent tho. This isn’t a bad album at all. It’s actually pretty good, and I think it’s worth listening to. It’s just not really as good as a lot of their other work—specifically the Day Of The Dead series that I mentioned a few times. I enjoyed this project tho. I’m just a little disappointed. The album cover is the best thing about this album. This should’ve been their craziest project yet, but it’s their most boring project that I’ve heard from them so far. It’s still good tho. I like it. I just prefer a lot of their other shit.

Favorite Song: Trade Off

Least Favorite Song: Fly Away

Verdict:

76%

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