"I didn't do this shit to be crowd pleasing": Flying Lotus opens up about You're Dead!

The Brainfeeder boss hosts a listening session on Twitter.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt aware that Flying Lotus just released You’re Dead!, his fifth album. To mark the occasion, he pressed play and let out some behind-the-scenes info on Twitter.

On ‘Never Catch Me’: “Kendrick came thru and recorded to this song at the crib. Came alone. W a hoodie over his head. Ready to work… He wrote it on the spot and laid it down”
On Snoop Dogg, who appears on ‘Dead Man’s Tetris’: “He was really into the concept. He was like. “U knw I made a song like this called murder was the case ” ummm. Yea I heard of it”
On the Ennio Morricone sample on ‘Turtles’: “Such a big morricone Sample. I thought it would be more trouble to keep it than it was worth. I’m glad I did because I really do like it”

He also mentions that there’s a version of ‘Ready Rrr Not’ featuring Chance the Rapper and a version of ‘Eyes Above’ featuring Kendrick Lamar (the album version without the rapper “still breaks my heart”, he says). Elsewhere there’s an uncredited appearance from Earl Sweatshirt. Additionally, the beat for ‘Eyes Above’ was produced in collaboration with FKA Twigs and Blank Blue’s Niki Randa.

He also declines to describe an anecdote in a recent Fader story as a “drug overdose,” although he did say that “Vicodin is the new heroin.”

After playing the album, he appraised the entire project. “I knew that when I set out to make this record id lose some people with the concept but I didn’t do this shit to be crowd pleasing,” he relates. “A lil self indulgent? absolutely. Thats kinda the point. If you ask me. I had to tell my story!”

The fun on Twitter continued as he asked Lorde to help spread the word. Here was her response: