Flatbush Zombies

Background and formation

Friends since grade school, all three members were born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City and are of Jamaican descent. One of the first things Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick Arc Elliott bonded over was the Japanese anime, Dragon Ball Z. During their teenage years, they began experimenting with psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin mushrooms and LSD. Zombie Juice, and Issa Gold of The Underachievers, specifically starting looking into the indigo lifestyle. Meechy Darko said the first time doing mushrooms his ego died and had a sort of rebirth of conscience.

Mixtapes and rise in popularity (2010–2013)

Erick Arc Elliot, 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. Later in the year, Flatbush Zombies released their debut mixtape, titled D.R.U.G.S., which stands for "Death and Reincarnation Under God's Supervision."

In 2013, the group collaborated with fellow Brooklyn rap group The Underachievers, on the single "No Religion". Flatbush Zombies also released the video for "MRAZ", a track off the group's mixtape BetterOffDEAD.

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 Action Bronson 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.

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

On February 13, 2014, Flatbush Zombies released a new song, "Lit". Flatbush Zombies revealed to XXL that their extended play (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 The Underachievers, and they would be collectively known as Clockwork Indigo. The two groups subsequently released a collaborative song titled "Butterfly Effect," followed by a 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". During the Clockwork Indigo concert tour, 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. 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, 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.