Flying Lotus

USA, 2006–now

American producer (b. 1983, Steven Ellison), great-nephew by marriage of Alice Coltrane. Cosmogramma (2010) and You're Dead! (2014) run hip-hop drum programming into free jazz and studio psychedelia; his Brainfeeder label carried the approach outward.

MusicRoots documents 5 artists who influenced Flying Lotus and 0 artists Flying Lotus influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Flying Lotus?

• Alice Coltrane — Alice Coltrane, his great-aunt by marriage, has been named the largest single influence on his music - the harp, the drone, the idea of a record as a devotional object.
• J Dilla — Dilla's off-grid drum programming is the rhythmic foundation Flying Lotus builds his own on.
• Sun Ra — Sun Ra's cosmology and his willingness to let a band come apart are part of what Cosmogramma is made from.
• Aphex Twin — Aphex Twin's electronics are the other side of Flying Lotus's inheritance, against the jazz.
• MF DOOM — DOOM's dense, sample-collaged rapping is among the influences Flying Lotus names; the two later worked together.