Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, is the man on everyone’s mind this week as he dropped his fifth studio album Your Dead! on Warp Records. The 40-minute trip into the nut of Afrofuturism in hip-hop features jazz legend Herbie Hancock alongside Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. Lotus, who will appear at Terminal 5 adn the Music Hall of Williamsburg, recently sat down with The New York Times, who penned him a composer. A coveted title, indeed, Lotus sited Miles Davis as an inspiration for Your Dead!
“There’s something about his music that was just so shadowy,” he said.
Lotus continued to remark on the album, which was initially slated to be straight jazz.
“From my perspective it’s still a jazz record, but it’s definitely changed quite a bit from the original idea,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a more traditional, hard-bop approach. And that was a good vibe for a while, but then I started to think to myself, 'Man, there’s so much stuff that I’m making right now that’s not necessarily straight-ahead-jazz-sounding.'”
Of course, the obvious discourse is on the record title, and Lotus’s meaning for and philosophy on death and dying.
“I found so many reasons to call it You’re Dead! — not just because I wanted to make this album about the journey through death,” said Lotus. “I was watching the music scene that I came up with kind of go stale, and watching the lights go out on a lot of my friends. And even for myself, saying, 'I wonder if what I do even matters anymore?' Like, dying in the public consciousness.”
Flying Lotus will present his ideologies on death this week to New Yorkers at Terminal 5 Wednesday, Oct. 15, and the Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday. Unfortunately, tickets for both shows are sold out.
