Flying Lotus has worked with some excellent rappers, like Kanye West, who ignored him, but he told Newsweek that Kendrick Lamar, who guest-starred on this year's You're Dead!, is the best he has seen.
"Working with him was great," Lotus said. "He's a mad genius of a man. I'm really fascinated by him. Because I think he's the best rapper out there. I don't think anyone's f-----g with him rapping. Just watching his process, seeing how songs come to life when he hears things — there's no blockage of ideas and expression. As soon as he plays something [imitates Lamar repeating a hook], it becomes a song right there. It's so cool to watch someone do that."
Maybe FL would have reserved that "best rapper" title for Kanye West if the Louis Vitton Don let him get on 2013's Yeezus.
"I should have been on it," Lotus said. "It was kind of weird that I wasn't. Just being totally real, not on some ego s--- .... I was like, "They didn't even call!"
This particular cold shoulder from 'Ye hurt because Lotus thought it fit the FL style.
"That's my favorite one of his albums," he said. "I really wish I was part of it. There's a few things that came out that I really wish I was on. I wish I was on that. I wish I was on the Earl [Sweatshirt] album, the Doris album."
But he got a great consolation prize: working with Radiohead genius Thom Yorke.
"I was just talking to him," Lotus said. "He's got some s---. Something happening soon. I just feel it. Something's around the corner. I feel it in my bones."
So, what's next as far as a new album goes?
"I shouldn't say," he said. "But more than anything, whenever I start off with something, it always changes. With You're Dead!, even though that's what it was called from the beginning, the s--- was going to be way different than the initial stages. I feel like I know what I want to do now. I don't know if it's going to be a Lotus record or [rapper alter ego] Captain Murphy."
