With three mixtapes already in their discography, this Brooklyn hip-hop trio arrived with a debut album more fully formed than most, but
3001: A Laced Odyssey is still a staggeringly big and stunning release. Add that it's a concept album -- predicting the future like Kubrick's 2001 -- and the
Flatbush Zombies seem unstoppable, something underlined by how effortlessly they spit their brilliance. Flexing cut "Bounce" offers "Spliff long looking like a Manson/I'm on acid feeling like the Hamptons" as if
Timothy Leary and
Lil Wayne co-wrote the lyrics, while later, the song barks "Pull up your Pampers," along with street talk, swear words, and party choruses that stick in the head.
Outkast-meets-
Funkadelic with the ambitiousness of
De La Soul or
Deltron 3030 is the way it all plays out, and underneath is the production of member Erick the Architect, a versatile and smart beatmaker who can play it plush and woozy ("A Spike Lee Joint") or sparse, indie, and hypnotic ("This Is It"). An excellent debut that flows perfectly and offers something new with every return. [
3001: A Laced Odyssey was also released on LP.] ~ David Jeffries