Backstage With Flatbush Zombies

By any account, Brooklyn's own Flatbush Zombies have one of the greatest live shows in hip-hop. Part hardcore show, part perfectly-synced rap performance, part Halloween-style freak show, the undead trio go all out—spraying 40s, throwing waffles, stage diving and the works—for their fans, making sure that no show is the same.

"We like to break the third wall," says Meech, one-third of the Zombies collective that also includes Juice and Erick Arc Elliott, backstage last Tuesday (Dec. 3) before the group's final show of their tour supporting recent mixtape Better Off Dead. "Sometimes rappers and performers are too cool, and it's almost like you're watching them in an aquarium or a zoo. You wanna leave a mystique, but you also wanna show people that you can touch people. That's why I jump in the crowd every night, to touch people. I need that energy; I need it just as much as they need me."

With Better Off Dead getting positive reviews and the next evolution of Flatbush Zombies on the horizon—the trio promised two new musical projects, as well as a book of photography from producer/rapper Erick Arc Elliott in the pipeline—XXL followed the Zombies through their headlining show at Irving Plaza last week to figure out just what type of preparation goes into one of the best shows hip-hop has to offer. —Dan Rys (@danrys) and Emmanuel C.M. (@ECM_LP)

Soundcheck

Prep for the Zombies show started in the early afternoon, when Meech and his mom drove around to six different bodegas in Brooklyn to round up 100 40 oz. bottles of Old English to line their stage setup and provide some welcome hydration for the group and their crew backstage. The rest of the setup—artificial turf, skeletons and a headstone—was meant to mimic a graveyard, an idea that they first tried out during their Halloween show in Los Angeles.

"That was one of my favorite shows—we were all tripping on acid, everyone backstage, it was just so much fun," Juice said about the stage props. "And that was the first time we did it; we had a mannequin, a white lady hung up like they used to do to black people from the top of the ceiling. We had a whole bunch of stuff, skeletons, tombstones, cobwebs, 40s, the grass turf. We first did that on Halloween, and we were like, we'll save it for New York and bring it back out and we'll see how it goes."

Meech had been at the venue since 5 o'clock setting things up, making sure things went smoothly and showing his mother—who later told XXL that this was her second-ever Zombies show, and her first time seeing all the work that went into it—how things worked. He's the creative mind behind each show's presentation, and he pulls from all aspects of life to create a unique experience.

"Life, movies—I tend to take a lot from movies—sometimes books," Meech said about the ideas behind their stage shows. "Cartoons. It's the simplest things. I think sometimes people try too hard to grab something from everything, and sometimes you just gotta let it fall into your lap. A lot of times that's what happens to me, it starts out as a joke. The astroturf was a joke, we was talkin' about playing putt-putt golf."

Once Juice showed up, carting a Grateful Dead Dancing Bear costume, no less—the guys started in on their sound check around 6:45 to run through new variations in their set, where they might want to drop the beat and go a capella, and whether or not Meech can credibly jump over the barrier separating the fans from the stage. The barrier is eventually moved further forward, though Meech would choose not to leap directly from the stage later anyway, instead opting for a much higher vantage point to make his leap from the side. Souncheck ended minutes before the doors opened at 7 pm, at which point Juice stopped out for pizza and Meech made sure his mom got a wristband.

Pre-Show

Backstage quickly became a sea of friends, road guys, former roommates and hometown homies, with Bodega Bamz and his crew mingling freely with his fellow New Yorkers. Elliott arrived from Brooklyn at 8:40, while Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg DJ'd on stage and everyone was gearing up for their performances. Conversation ran from who bodied who on Biggie and Method Man's "The What" off Ready To Die to how, exactly, to speak to security guards who won't let friends or girlfriends backstage without a pass.

Elliott said that the group doesn't have any standard rituals before they go on stage, though they used to get together and rap Biggie's verse on the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-assisted "Notorious Thugs," which appeared on Life After Death. "Rituals are like, try not to be annoyed by all the bullshit," Juice said laughing when asked about how he prepares for shows. "Like not having enough list space, things like that. I don't really need much in life, just the energy from the crowd. So there's no rituals really right now."

Meech agreed, though he admits to an anxious feeling beforehand. "I get anxious, that's about it," he said. "I want to get on stage, that's all I care about. I got a ritual after—I drink, I smoke, count my money maybe if I'm feeling that that night, have sex. But before that I try not to be a creature of habit—I try not to be like, I need two cigarettes and five M&Ms before I go on stage, because there will be a night where you won't have your two cigarettes and five M&Ms."

One thing they usually have—and which they had in abundance Wednesday night, thanks to Meech's early afternoon runaround, was 40s. "The 40 oz is perfect for the shows, for me I need it, it gives me my balance," he said laughing. "I like that shit, I like to be a little loose for the shows, I don't like to be too uptight, and a 40 oz is perfect. If I drink too much Hennessy I might go a little crazy. [Laughs] I love Henny, we drank Henny every day on tour, but like, a 40 oz is just good."

With Bamz on stage and showtime approaching, the spliff smoke started to subside—a little bit, at least—and the Zombies hit the side of the stage, waiting for Rosenberg to introduce them. At the signal a little after 9:30, Juice jumps out alone, introduces Erick, and then makes the call for Meech. "I don't really get into show mode until Juice says, "Meechy, Darkooo!" and I come out and see the crowd," Meech said. "I'm not even getting high before—I smoke weed, but I don't get high, you know what I mean. My mind is just... I don't even know where I be. I don't get nervous, I don't know what it is, it's just like a feeling until I get on stage. I'm glad I got that feeling though."

Showtime

The Zombies show is electric, with all three rappers interchanging and rapping hard, following each others lines, feeding off the energy and emotion of the crowd. Songs like "Palm Trees" off Better Off Dead and the group's breakout single, "Thug Waffle," from debut mixtape D.R.U.G.S. have the crowd rapping back even louder than the Zombies are.

"We went on tour right after the tape [BetterOffDead] dropped, and people knew all the words," said Meech beforehand. "Some people have albums, not just mixtapes but albums, out for six months and people are still trying to figure out if they like a song. So shit like that tells me that we're doing something well. I don't know what we're doing, but it's working."

Without enough time to do much rehearsal, the Zombies learned their performance art on the road, playing off each other and tweaking small issues after each show. "We have very good cohesion with each other on stage," Meech explained. "Sometimes I'll run out of breath and these guys will say the word, and the day before that I wasn't out of breath and they didn't need to say the word. So that shows me we know what's going on with each other. There's days where my voice is gone, but it doesn't sound like that to the fans. I have good wingmen."

The show was a whirlwind—they ran through tracks like "Face-Off," "Death" and "Bliss" in addition to "Thug Waffle" and "Palm Trees"—and an encore of "Amerikkkan Pie" devolved into an on-stage dance-off to Migos' "Hannah Montana" to end the show, with Bamz and the whole crew joining the party. But even with a venue full of adoring fans, the Zombies don't let it get to their heads and keep on performing.

"I don't think about [soaking things in], or I try not to think about them too much, or try not to get caught up in them," said Juice. "I try to tell myself that this is normal, nothing is going on, I'm no one. And keep moving on from there."