Demetri Simms aka Meechy Darko’s musical journey began in 2010 when the 32-year-old became part of the hip-hop trio Flatbush Zombies. Together with Eric Are Elliott aka The Architect and Zombie Juice aka Juicy, he released the first mixtape DRUGS in 2012 and then their debut album 3001: A LACED ODYSSEY in 2016, which ended up in the top ten of the Billboard Album Sale Charts. The name was inspired by the origins of the three musicians, who were born in the Flatbush district of Brooklyn, New York. It was there that the artists met and bonded through their shared passion for rap, which led them to experiment with beats. Oriented on New School Rap, their songs thematized their everyday life in the ghetto and drug consumption. As Meechy Darko tells us in an interview, it was mainly due to the pandemic that the trio decided to pursue solo projects.
History meets the present
Also in GOTHIC LUXURY, Meechy Darko reviews his everyday life. If you look at the track list, it is already clear from the titles: This is where religion, politics and history meet. Already in the first single “Kill Us All” Darko criticizes the American system from capitalism to racism and doesn’t mince his words:
“Black kid get shot, white man get tazed
Media spread lies, politicians get paid
Doctors wanna drug you up so you can reach an early grave
Prisons wanna lock you up so they can fill up every cage.”
The drive behind his debut album was a personal stroke of fate. His father was shot by police officers in Miami in January 2020, which, according to his own statement, left him no choice but to make the record even more personal in comparison to previous works. The US rapper examines the current racism against the black community in the USA and also looks back on history and its influence. How Meechy Darko himself would describe his album and why it is important to him that GOTHIC LUXURY is not seen as a political album, the rapper explained to us in a video interview.
Video: Meechy Darko – “Kill Us All”
Listen to Meechy Darko’s album GOTHIC LUXURY streamed here: