Vic Mensa honored the one-year anniversary of Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan’s death on Tuesday, January 15th, by releasing an emotional, heavy cover of the late Irish singer’s most iconic hit, “Zombie.” The track from Mensa’s new rock-inspired band, 93PUNX, turns the intense original down, with the rapper’s somber voice doused in AutoTune alongside spare guitars and an eerie beat.
Mensa, who dropped the Hooligans EP last month, has been working on the side project for several months, revealing in a Beats 1 interview in December that he was looking for an outlet for his more rocker tendencies. “I also was making this punk music,” said Mensa of the sessions for his EP, while name-dropping such punk touchstones as The Clash and Dead Kennedys as his favorites, explaining that to him punk isn’t a sound, a “delivery” or a style or production, but an attitude.
In a statement about the “Zombie” cover, Mensa, a outspoken gun control advocate, explained, “We connected to zombie because we were born from violence.” Mensa’s cover came the same day that the living members of the Cranberries released the single “All Over Now” and announced the Apr. 26 release of their final album, an 11-track effort featuring vocals O’Riordan recorded in the months before her death, entitled In The End.
Listen to their rendition of ‘Zombie’ here.
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