Flatbush Zombies' Erick the Architect on BlackBerrys, the N-Gage, and a Surprise Apple WWDC Appearance

Erick the Architect, founding member and primary producer of Brooklyn hip-hop group Flatbush Zombies, made an unexpected appearance at Apple's WWDC this year, performing a rap about apps following Tim Cook's final keynote presentation — a cameo that served as a prelude to his new single, "No Doubt (I'm In Love)."

The track, produced by Yeti Beats and Federico Vindver, marks a notable stylistic shift for Erick, leaning into disco and reggae influences rather than the darker, boom-bap-grounded sound the group is known for.

In an interview published July 4, Erick reflected on the gadgets, habits, and routines that shape his creative life — touching on everything from obsolete mobile hardware to offline walking rituals.

On the question of indispensable tools, Erick pointed not to software but to something analog. "A moleskine book and a pen," he said. When setting up a new device, Dropbox comes first, he noted, to retrieve the thousands of files he has accumulated online.

His relationship with smartphones is complicated. Erick said he misses typing on a physical keyboard — specifically a BlackBerry — and identified virtual reality headsets as the tech trend he most wishes would disappear. "I'm not really a fan of virtual reality and putting things over my eyes to augment my reality," he said.

Asked about his favorite gadget, Erick named the fourth-generation iPod. His most disappointing: the Nokia N-Gage, the gaming phone that Nokia released in 2003 to limited commercial success. Fondest gaming memory goes to Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube — a title he said he played repeatedly on a large cathode-ray tube television that, in his telling, required four people to move.

To concentrate or break through creative blocks, Erick said he powers off his phone entirely — or, in his words, pretends he no longer has one. He also takes walks without his phone, carrying instead a dedicated digital audio player with no internet connection. "I can focus on the music entirely and not be distracted by incoming texts, emails, or social media," he said.

His current obsessions lean physical: he has been collecting vinyl records, picked up a batch at VinylCon, and is also collecting Absolute Batman and Invincible comics.

On the creative work he is most proud of, Erick pointed to a 2011 project called "Almost Remembered," which he described as the catalyst for everything that followed. "It was the most creative I've felt to date in terms of experimenting with new sounds," he said, adding that he considered himself an amateur at the time but that the project gave him the confidence to continue as a producer and artist.

The song Erick most wishes he had written is "Bohemian Rhapsody." "It's such a ridiculous song in the most beautiful way," he said. "I can't compare it to any other piece of music."

His mother's advice has stayed with him: "Everybody has a season, and although it may not be your season now... you have to consider that when it is, that season may last forever."

The WWDC appearance and the new single together signal that Erick is actively seeking to expand his creative range — reinforcing a pattern, evident from his collaborations with artists ranging from Joey Bada$$ and the RZA to James Blake and hardcore punk band Trash Talk, of resisting easy categorization. Whether the disco-reggae direction of "No Doubt (I'm In Love)" represents a one-off experiment or a sustained pivot remains to be seen.