Flying Lotus

Late-night caffeine can often make sentences that sound coherent to the writer virtually impossible to understand for the reader. Bottom-line? I work too much. But when inspiration knocks, you’ve got to answer the door. Still, even within that late-night train wreck, my final paragraph had some great points that I want to elaborate on, specifically with my newfound fascination with Flying Lotus.

Flying Lotus is a one-man show. He is more or less a DJ with some great reviews as a producer and beat maker. I think that for many fans of the LA hip hop scene, we are always looking for the next Madlib or DJ Shadow (I will post many, many things on them in the future if you don’t already know the names). California claims to be the most forward thinking state and in terms of Hip Hop, I believe they truly are. First, you need to understand the history of what Flying Lotus is really trying to embody, and why with only major release he already has a huge fan base equal to that of his detractors.

As luck would have it, “Endtroducing...” was actually the first CD I would ever buy. I saw it in the alternative section at Best Buy when I was a little kid back in 1996. I don’t know if I buy into it being fate or not, but it sure is an awful coincidence that it is one of my all time favorite CDs. I remember thinking that DJ Shadow was the coolest name I could think of. If you (whoever you are dear reader) ever see this on vinyl, I will pay you handsomely for it.

So why should you care about a record from twelve years ago (man I feel old these days)? It is still in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first album to be made entirely of samples. Basically, it was the first album pieced together by mixing different pieces of old records. A drum line from an old jazz beat, an organ from Beethoven, spoken word from a collectors set, etc. Check out my favorite track “Organ Donor” here.

DJ Shadow added to what would latter be labeled as “Trip Hop”. Trip hop was a global phenom that especially took hold in the UK. Even though he refuses to allow his music to be classified in this manner (“I wanted to add to the library of Hip Hop. I don’t want to be grouped in this fake genre created by the media”) he is overwhelmingly reduced to just that. But seriously, I understand his point. If experimental hip hop has to be put into a sub-genre just to be considered hip hop, that means that only pop hip hop is actually that kind of music. It would seem to discourage development into new areas (ie. Sounds) that I think would set the industry back. If anything, we need more experimental music rather than less.

Next up: Madlib. Madlib really pushed the creative limits of hip-hop early on as well. I’ve already gone into J Dilla a little here, but the idea is similar: using unique samples to create a whole new style of hip-hop. Check out Accordion by Madvillain (aka Madlib on production with MF Doom MCing). Think about 2002. Air Force Ones by freaking Nelly is the number one song in the nation. Imagine the courage it took to produce an underground experimental record that flew in the face of commercial hip-hop. It was like raising your hand and saying, “Actually, I don’t want to make money….”

Finally, we have Flying Lotus. What does he bring to the table? Now that really is the question. I would very loosely say DJ Shadow added the ambient sound, Madlib added the jazz sound, and Flylo adds electro (and his own interpretation of both of the others). In terms of sales, message boards, and DJ playlists it would appear the target audience for this music (i.e. Producers, DJs, whatever I am) agree that for all of the hype of being labeled the next big LA producer brings, Flylo comes correct on his latest release.

As a side note: Please support innovative artists (such as Flylo) by purchasing music like this rather than just downloading it. The more we steal music, the cheaper it becomes to us.