SOUNDTRACK: FLATBUSH ZOMBIES-Tiny Desk Concert #64 (August 13, 2020).
I’ve never heard of the Flatbush Zombies, but I really like their chill rap style. Musically the songs are groovy and complex and the live backing vocalists (l-r: Danielle Withers; Nayanna Holley; Stevvi Alexander) really flesh out the sound.
Plus, there’s three lead rappers who have very different vocal styles and combine wonderfully.
Most of the music comes from keyboardist Brittani Washington and bassist Robin Bramlett. But its the live drums (Drin Elliott) that really punch these songs (the cymbals sound really sharp and clean).
You’ve never really experienced Flatbush Zombies if you haven’t been to one of their live shows. The hip-hop group’s knack for tearing down festival stages is well documented and the energy transfer between members Zombie Juice, Meechy Darko and Erick Arc Elliott and their crowds is ferocious to put it lightly. So when I heard that they were recording a Tiny Desk concert from home, I was curious as to if and how that energy would manifest in a confined space.
It’s fun watching the band perform in this socially distanced house–everyone is far apart but clearly jamming off of each other, and the camera(s) are all over the room.
The Zombies present themselves like we’ve never seen or heard. Stripped down versions of “when i’m gone,” fan favorite, “Palm Trees” and the brand new James Blake-produced “Afterlife” are almost completely different from the recorded versions.
This may be yet another instance where a Tiny Desk Concert brings out the best of a rap band. I don’t know what their recorded versions sound like, but the live band is great. If this is really the first time they’ve played together, it’s a testament to how good they can all play together.
“when i’m gone” song starts out with Zombie Juice rapping. He’s got a soft but intense delivery that I really like. The backing vocals are really lovely. Erick Ark Elliott takes the second verse. His delivery is also quiet. But it’s the addition of Meechy Darko’s gravelly, intense rapping that sets the song apart. There’s also a nice instrumental breakdown at the end.
Between songs, the guys introduce themselves. Erik says he is Erik The Architect and Meechy says his government name is Dimitri Simms (which makes everyone laugh).
Introducing “Palm Trees” Erik says this is the first time you’ll hear this song in this way. Meechy sings the first part with his deep gravelly Jamaican vocals. For the second half, Zombie Juice raps in a kind of comical falsetto that I really like.
Meechy is a hilarious hype man, making all kind of hype sounds [Blap blap. gaboom, r-r-r-rah, bakka, bakka] as they introduce the band members.
The guys stand up for “Afterlife.” Erik takes the lead and the other two guys back him up nicely. There’s fantastic backing vocals on this song and it’s pretty clear that these guys are terrific live.
I really enjoyed this set and am looking forward to hearing more from these Zombies.
[READ: August 15, 2020] “All My Pronouns”
This essay kind of updates the prescriptivist/grammar article that David Foster Wallace wrote in Harper’s almost 20 years ago.
Anne Fadiman addresses the increased usage of they/their as both a singular pronoun and for nonbinary persons.
She explains that she is a classic prescriptivist when it comes to language and to life. She sorted her M&Ms by color before eating them. (Apparently 18% of respondents to a survey responded that they did this while 82% said “no, that’s weird”). I think that’s weird, but I do go along with her on some other “splitter” attitudes.
She separates splitters vs. lumpers. Splitters makes distinctions rather than finding commonalities. Splitters don’t say you’ve seen a bird, or even a hawk, say a red-shouldered hawk. Splitters enjoy organization; splitters enjoy grammar.
Splitters tend to be presciptivitsts–this is how people should talk. While lumpers tend to be descriptivists this is how people actually talk.
Prescriptivists are called (usually by descriptivists) elitists, killjoys, curmudgeons, cranks, fussbudgets, old farts, usage nerds and grammar fascists. Descriptivists are called (usually by prescriptivists) corrupters, miscreants, barbarians and vulgarians.
But now prescriptivists have to address the issue of the pronoun “they.”
The first usage of they is as an identifier for a person whose gender does not fall in the the he/him or she/her binary: They went to the store. Even Webster has added this as a definition last fall.
The second usage of they is as a generic pronoun for an individual whose gender is unspecified or irrelevant: every reader of this essay thinks they are a grammar expert.
Fadiman gives many personal examples of people using they/them for gender non binary reasons. Fadiman is a teacher and so she encounters many students each year who introduce themselves as they/them. I found these examples useful and interesting. She says it’s not hard to use they if a student has introduced themselves that way.
However, when a student she has known as he/she transitions, it is not always easy to remember that when introducing them Fadiman has at times, slipped and used the previous pronoun. But she has found that most transitioning people understand and although the mistake is embarrassing, it’s typically forgiven. It’s when people deliberately try to provoke by using a singular for a non binary person that tempers rise,.
Then she moves into the use of they has a singular pronoun. It’s becoming more common for people to use this regularly.
But Fadiman grew up the daughter of a librarian and a banker–parents who regarded people who spoke “bad English” as slovenly. Her father even belonged to the Correct English Club in high school. he felt that the twentieth century was an apocalyptic wasteland.
Fadiman grew up loving the sentence diagram: “No lumper could understand the intense joy that I felt when I first saw that diagram.” [I loved them too.] But, she says, “When I showed that to my husband, he stared at it with furrowed brow and said WTF.”
The problem is that our language is sexist. Why should a masculine pronoun refer to all people? Why did they create a language structure this way?
Grammar rules state that a singular noun matches a singular pronoun. But today’s students must find this not only baffling but incomprehensible.
The most fascinating part of the essay comes near the end when she compares They to You. “You” had once been exclusively plural. People used Thou and Thee. But gradually class distinctions made it a challenge to know which form to use and slowly you evolved into a singular. By the 17th century “you” had supplanted “thee” and “thou.”
English needs a gender neutral singular pronoun and “‘they’ is the worse option, except for all the others.”
This change is political and generational and it will happen, just a lot faster than anyone might have imagined. Besides, the most powerful foes of the singular they are from the Christians right who deny the existence of nonbinary people.
Not company most of us want to be in. Those who agree, raise their hand.
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