Flying Lotus

Whether performing solo or drawing support from an ensemble, Flying Lotus crafts an unmistakably sharp, jittery, and intoxicating style that merges hip-hop, experimental electronic sounds, and avant-garde jazz. Upon emerging in 2006, Steven Ellison—operating as Flying Lotus—was viewed as a rising talent in the vein of J Dilla, Madlib, and Dabrye, yet he shattered those expectations with 2008’s Los Angeles. His debut release for Warp advanced an innovative fusion of approaches emblematic of the L.A. beat community he helped define. Early exposure to ’90s West Coast rap recordings that blended programmed beats with live playing also shaped his direction, which he later refined through sessions alongside jazz figures such as bassist Thundercat and strings master Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. That trajectory began with the intense 2010 album Cosmogramma and reached its highest critical recognition with 2014’s You’re Dead!, which entered the Billboard 200’s Top 20 and yielded the Kendrick Lamar feature “Never Catch Me,” nominated for a Grammy in Best Dance Recording. After focusing on assorted film projects and running his acclaimed Brainfeeder imprint, Ellison resurfaced in 2019 with Flamagra, his second straight release to lead Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Following a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, he scored the 2021 anime series Yasuke. The David Lynch-inspired “Garmonbozia,” his first solo single in several years, surfaced in 2024.

Steven Ellison was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the city’s Winnetka neighborhood. He is the grandson of Marilyn McLeod, the songwriter and producer recognized for co-writing hits including Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover” and Jermaine Jackson’s “Let Me Tickle Your Fancy.” He is likewise the grand-nephew of visionary jazz artists Alice Coltrane (McLeod’s sister) and John Coltrane. His cousins include Ravi and Oran Coltrane, the latter of whom first acquainted him with electronic music production and supplied his initial piece of equipment, a Roland MC-505 groovebox. Initially drawn to filmmaking—he created stop-motion videos as a child using action figures and a camcorder—Ellison earned a degree from Los Angeles Film School and later studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. After a brief stint in the Bay Area, he returned to L.A. and in 2004 began an internship at Peanut Butter Wolf’s Stones Throw label, where he encountered inspirations such as J Dilla and Madlib. Throughout this period he kept developing his own music, drawn especially to the Akai MPC sampler. Responding to an open call from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block, he submitted tracks that were soon licensed for interstitials and commercial breaks.

Ellison made his official debut as Flying Lotus in 2006, the same year he linked with Plug Research, a vital platform within Los Angeles’ emerging beat scene. His “Two Bottom Blues” appeared alongside contributions from established peers including Daedelus, Sa-Ra, and Georgia Anne Muldrow on Carlos Niño Presents the Sound of L.A. Months later he delivered a remix for Mia Doi Todd’s La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams. That October, Plug Research issued 1983, Ellison’s first album. Titled after his birth year, it was recorded largely alone except for the cosmic “Unexpected Delight,” featuring vocals from Laura Darlington—a frequent collaborator in the years that followed. Prominent early support arrived from BBC DJ Gilles Peterson. The following year, U.K. underground institution Warp Records signed Ellison and released the Reset EP—another October arrival—on which his sound grew more distinctive; Andreya Triana joined him on the woozy opener “Tea Leaf Dancers,” an early signature track.

By this time Ellison had become a central force in the activity surrounding Low End Theory, a weekly club night—and informal gathering place for aspiring beatmakers and musicians—held in L.A.’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood. Local momentum and growing international attention turned his first Warp LP into a subcultural landmark. The aptly titled Los Angeles arrived in June 2008, debuted at number 16 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and was later cited by multiple publications as one of the year’s standout releases. Ellison incorporated vocals from Laura Darlington, Gonjasufi, and Dolly, while also receiving co-production assistance from fellow native Californians and L.A. transplants. Three of them—Gaslamp Killer, Samiyam, and MatthewDavid—soon contributed to the catalog of Ellison’s Brainfeeder label, launched the same year and named after the album’s opening track. By August 2009, Warp had also issued L.A. EP 1 X 3, L.A. EP 2 X 3, and L.A. EP 3 X 3, a trilogy of short-form releases containing unreleased material and remixes. One remix came from eventual Brainfeeder artist Martyn, underscoring Ellison’s early engagement with pre-commercial dubstep. Around the same period he remixed a Martyn track and made his initial appearances on the Hyperdub label.

One of Ellison’s key formative influences was West Coast rap—particularly G-funk—that fused programming with live instrumentation. On his next album he pursued that idea to its fullest extent, though the outcome steered closer to modern electric avant-garde jazz than to lowrider classics. Released in May 2010, Cosmogramma marked a pivotal release for Ellison, assembled with instrumentalists including bassist and vocalist Thundercat, violinist and arranger Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, harpist Rebekah Raff, and his cousin, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. Darlington, Niki Randa, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke each contributed vocals to separate tracks. Equally significant, Ellison wove in sounds captured on medical equipment in his mother’s hospital room, where she passed away shortly before the album took form. Although those recordings are not as foregrounded as, for instance, a Thundercat bassline, the weight of those emotions permeates the work. Cosmogramma reached number three on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and became the first Flying Lotus album to enter the Billboard 200, peaking at number 88. The follow-up Pattern+Grid World EP appeared several months later.

Until the Quiet Comes, the atmospheric fourth Flying Lotus album, arrived in September 2012. Though more spacious and streamlined than Cosmogramma, it still featured Thundercat, additional Brainfeeder affiliates such as keyboardists Austin Peralta and Brandon Coleman, and Atwood-Ferguson. Darlington, Randa, and Yorke again supplied ethereal vocals, joined this time by Erykah Badu. The album entered the Billboard 200’s Top 40 at number 34 and came close to topping the Dance/Electronic chart. Ellison then shifted dramatically in the opposite direction and achieved new heights of recognition with his subsequent project. You’re Dead!, released in October 2014, drew on many of the same session musicians—augmented by Herbie Hancock, rising Brainfeeder addition Kamasi Washington, Snoop Dogg, and Ellison himself under his rapping Captain Murphy alias—and intensified the energy. The aggressive LP reached the Billboard 200’s Top 20 and topped Dance/Electronic Albums. “Never Catch Me,” featuring Kendrick Lamar, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording. Ellison had also co-produced “Wesley’s Theory” for Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, an Album of the Year contender, earning him a second nomination.

Brainfeeder naturally expanded into film production, beginning with the biological horror-comedy short Royal and the 2017 feature Kuso, both directed by (and scored by) Ellison. Flying Lotus also received credit for the music of the short Blade Runner Black Out 2022, among other visual projects that emerged in the mid- to late 2010s. Ellison concluded the longest gap between Flying Lotus albums in May 2019 with Flamagra. Assembled across the intervening years, it incorporated Brainfeeder signee George Clinton, Solange, Anderson .Paak, Shabazz Palaces, and Tierra Whack, among numerous other guests. Director David Lynch played a central role, contributing a narrative about an inferno threatening a neighborhood. Flamagra became the second Flying Lotus album to top the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and debuted at number 45 on the Billboard 200. He continued close collaboration with Thundercat on the bassist’s 2020 release It Is What It Is; it won a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album, and that same year Ellison was nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

Returning to film work, Ellison composed the soundtrack for the 2021 Netflix anime series Yasuke, centered on a 16th-century Black samurai. “The Room,” a neo-soul single featuring singer Devin Tracy, appeared in 2022, the same year Ellison co-wrote, directed, and scored the “Ozzy’s Dungeon” segment of the horror anthology film V/H/S/99. He and Smoke DZA teamed up for Flying Objects, an EP featuring appearances from Black Thought, Estelle, and Conway the Machine, in 2023. Still drawing inspiration from David Lynch—particularly Twin Peaks—Ellison returned in 2024 with the woozy single “Garmonbozia,” on which he sang about being confined to “the red room.”