New York rap trio, the Flatbush Zombies, released a new music video for their song “Blacktivist” via their Facebook page this past Friday. Backed by a florid arrangement of strings, 808s, drums and horns, the Zombies take a stance on a myriad of current social issues ranging from police brutality to pop culture to ISIS. The music video is a visually stimulating montage of images that’re all symbolic in nature. Snippets of police brutalizing citizens, of children learning how to shoot guns and clips of Beyonce music videos artistically intermingle with shots of the rappers decked out in all black taking on the roles of modern day revolutionaries. The scenes match perfectly with the content of the song, summed up by Zombie Juice’s last couple of lines on the track- “Grew up in the system filled with hate and oppression/ It won’t be gone when our pops and our moms are left”.
Acclaimed videographer Mario Pfeifer created and directed the music video. Pfeifer wanted the video to accurately question the current state of our society, from America’s ongoing issues with racism to our obsession with celebrities to our overwhelmingly gluttonous consumption of pop culture. Pfeifer achieved his vision using different combinations of documentary style clips with 3-D animation. The music video is part of his new art exhibit that explores the dark recesses of society. You can check out the exhibit until October 25th at the MINI/Goethe-Institute Curatorial Residencies in New York.
If you’re not lucky enough to get to New York to see art in action, you can watch the video below. Be prepared to be blown away.
