“Flava” from Zach89 and his Team Blackout cohort Reggie! This is a vibrant update to Craig Mack‘s smash hit single “Flava in Ya Ear“, which took the world by storm in 1994.
This track will appear on Zach89‘s new RapZhody mixtape, slated for release on November 8, 2011. The project pays homage to some of the greatest Hip Hop songs of the ’90s – an era that Zach89 deems very important to his creative development.
Major influences for Zach89 include Nas, Jay-Z, Kanye West and The Roots, the latter of which he credits as the group that fueled his desire to pursue music as a career. The young rapper takes his percussion training seriously, and cites a range of influences in live music.
“My favorite percussionist is ?uestlove Hip-Hop wise, and I’m feeling Travis Barker. I also listen to a lot of jazz drummers like Elvin Jones and Lewis Nash. “
As a native of Queens, New York, Zach89 takes the legacy of his city and his generation very seriously.
“I feel like this latest generation is bringing the essence of Hip Hop back,” he asserts. “The artists are more lyrical again, and I feel like I’m contributing to that part of the game as well. I’m an observer, so I take a lot of my life’s experiences and what I see other people going through, I try to put it in my music and my writing and just give people ‘me’. I want to make the music that totally represents me, so when people listen, they’ll really get a good grasp on who I am finally.”
