What's My Obsession with Zombies About??

Lord Lav

Beatmaker
“What is the obsession with zombies anyway Lav??….” That’s a question I often get asked. And it’s a good question at that…Despite my somewhat ‘sunny disposition’ I’ve always been strangely drawn to the dark side.

Like Luke Skywalker only without the whining, the incestial kissing and the magic powers. Things that terrify me have always intrigued me.

There’s something addictive about trying to scare yourself… It’s similar to the desire one has for roller-coasters and bungee jumping. Or, on a far tamer scale (yet far more terrifying for me) the desire to eat a very hot curry.

The point where I realised I love zombies was after playing the original Resident Evil game on the first ever PlayStation console. The game had some hilariously, poorly dubbed acting from Japanese to English. (Think Wesker and Barry Burton’s Oscar Winning performances with lines such as, “Jill…. Don’t open that door.” And, “You were almost Jiiill sandwich ya know….” Despite that though, the game itself and the concept… terrified me! Not to mention the game’s music, that was amazing and still is!

This lead me down the path of many b-movie horror fans, watching all plethora of zombie flicks most notably the George Romero classic’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’, ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘Day of the Dead’. Of course when you venture into the weird and wonderful world of b-movie horror it naturally leads you to a list of film’s you would perhaps have been better off not watching. The first film that comes to my mind is ‘Dawn of the Living Dead’. Seriously not to be confused with the George Romero classic that goes under the same name without the additional word, living.

When I look at what it actually is about zombies that intrigues me beyond the simple fact that they shit me up, I believe it’s the concept of being bitten then turning into one of them. The idea of being doomed to be nothing more than a brain-dead carcass walking the streets forever as a mindless being and essentially having no control over it. This is what truly scares me most and this is the essential basis for my ‘obsession with zombies’. You could of course say the same for vampires and werewolves, yet to me zombies are worse! At least the vampires and werewolves are still able to think and use their brain long after ‘turning’. It’s this lose of mind (and to a lesser degree the potential of being eaten alive) that really freaks me out.

It was inevitable that I would incorporate the zombie theme into my music. The zombie apocalypse concept is to me, a perfect metaphor for the feeling you get from being surrounded by the mass of drudgery, where it seems all people want is to just survive whilst you on the other hand don’t want to just survive, butthrive!That pursuit of being who and what you want to be despite it being against what everyone thinks of you. When everyone around you seems to think and act one way and expects you to be the same whilst you feel like the only person that wants what you want in life and believes you can do it. It can get pretty lonely, not to mention difficult trying to fend off those negative views and opinions and trying to not become the same as those surrounded around you. To me the zombie apocalypse concept was the best way to metaphorically tie that whole feeling together.

Back when I first wanted to pursue Hip Hop and more specifically, rapping as a career, pretty much all my friends thought I was crazy and that it was nothing more than a pipe dream I would eventually snap out of. Thankfully life is better now as I have a lot more friends that think like me and want to do live life rather than just survive it. On top of that a lot of the friends and family I have from back then, now have a lot more faith in me too.

The first song I ever wrote and produced alone was on my first release The Bog Standard EP. The song in question being ‘Zombies Won’t U Smile’. A couple of years after making that track and releasing it, followed by a brief stint as a zombie extra in a local indie zombie flick I decided this concept shouldn’t be limited to just one song, but instead a whole album! Hence the creation of my debut album Lord of the Dead.

There’s a free preview of my album Lord of the Dead available on BitTorrent as a BitTorrent Bundle. That’s 5 free songs off of the album and one video trailer. By all means go in, download and share! You can see my Lord Lav BitTorrent Bundle by clicking on the link!

My full-length album Lord of the Dead is out now and is available to buy on my online store. It’s also available everywhere else including iTunes. Go check it out, share it and enjoy… and if you ever see a zombie, slay that muvafucka!!
 

Pug

IllMuzik Mortician
Moderator
ill o.g.
There's a lot of horror buffs here, Fade, Relic and I are all big into that shit! Congrats on the album, I will check out the preview later on.
 

Fade

The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
Didn't see this thread. Good read!

Zombies are cool but I think right now it's overdone. I liked it more when it was back in the day because it was more or less a horror sub genre, whereas today everyone wants zombie this and that. Not to take away from what you're doing, @Lord Lav.

I'm more into straight up horror, not just zombie stuff. I think the Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004 was fucking awesome, after that nothing has been close to that. And with that TV show, ugh.

But congrats on the album, I'm going to check it out now. Dope album cover!
 

Lord Lav

Beatmaker
Thanks Fade!

Thanks for your thoughts too. I agree the whole zombie genre is starting to get a bit oversaturated.

The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead was amazing from a horror perspective, though I don't think it was a patch on the original in terms of story and the way consumerism is portrayed. Especially for the time the original film was made.

In terms of films after 2004 I think Zombieland was actually a pretty good film too and Shaun of the Dead is a masterpiece imo. Though I might be a bit biased there, I've been a big fan of Simon Pegg since the mid-90's...
 

Fade

The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
I couldn't get into Shaun of the Dead at all. The first 10 minutes was hilarious when he walks to the corner store, but besides that, I think it's just their style of comedy that I'm not a fan of.

And Zombieland was actually good, I forgot about that one.
 
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