Flying Lotus‘ release of You’re Dead! last year will come to be a defining moment in modern hip hop and production. Whereas other producers are spending time in the studio crafting the best pop hooks possible or spending time working to build a track that will place high on the Beatport charts, Steven Ellison spent years crafting a new masterpiece melting together beats, acid jazz, and a concept surrounding the one unifying characteristic of all human beings: our eventual death. I’ve probably delved deeper into this album than any others in recent memory, but it’s the only one that seems to be indescribably poignant and immediately repeatable.
His second video from the album, “Coronus, The Terminator”, picks up a dark vibe where “Never Catch Me” seems to take a positive spin on the moment we pass into the afterlife, and I’m left with chills after just watching it once. On today’s national holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, this video can serve as tribute to a man’s life cut short and a reminder to live unafraid of what others are demanding from you, even if it eventually kills you.
You just may change the world in the process…
You come from a time where they look the same
And think the same too
There’s nowhere left to go, so I’d like to save you
