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From the outside, a set from Flatbush Zombies probably looks and sounds like a party. Initial spins of the new album from the Brooklyn hip-hop trio certainly feel like one, but a deeper dive into Flatbush Zombies’ sophomore full-length — Vacation in Hell — unveils a more serious affair that doesn’t tiptoe around sensitive topics like suicide, racism and the justice system’s obsession with throwing people in jail for petty crimes. A Vacation highlight — “M. Bison,” where Donald Trump is called a “fucking fake” — would make Geraldo Rivera rip off his own mustache. “There’s never a time when political music is not needed. I don’t think we thought, ‘We need this political song,’” Zombie Meechy Darko recently told GQ. “But I know that if we made an album without a song with that kind of message, we would feel like something was missing.” What won’t be missing from this Sunday set at The Ritz will be youthful energy, and you might want to get an advance ticket is you don’t want to miss out.
Flatbush Zombies w/Kirk Knight/Nyck Caution. Sun. June 3, 8 p.m. $25. The Ritz, 1503 E. 7th Ave. Ybor City. INFO
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 7, 2018.