Until the Awkward Silence Comes: A Casual Conversation with Flying Lotus

I started following the LA beat scene because, in the artists that comprise it, I imagined kindred spirits. It all began with Flying Lotus’ first album, Los Angeles, a record that first demonstrated to myself and many others that something revolutionary was happening in LA. From afar, at various desks in Philadelphia and New York, I gathered news of the LA scene, sought its sounds, and what I heard echoed into my own past. Here were kids who clearly came up on the same stuff I did—a heady mix of golden age hip-hop and British electronic music, perhaps a few remnants of angsty teenage years filled with old school punk. Add in a sense of humor honed by “The Simpsons” and an early introduction to Fruity Loops, and you get the mind of the modern day 20-something beatsmith.

Whether or not he is the most representative of that sound, Flying Lotus is its ambassador. With unmatched popularity in his style of music, he’s the door to the LA beat scene for anyone who doesn’t live within its geographic or conceptual realm. When I finally got the chance to talk to FlyLo a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t help but get selfish and go for all the nerd questions I’d been longing to ask him. At times, I shed my journalist hat completely and just let my fan curiosity guide me, bumbling through my own conjecture and occasionally asking a bit too much (he refused to tell me where he buys records). But upon reading the transcript of our conversation, it felt real to me. This wasn’t researched because I already knew what I wanted to find out, and it wasn’t ultrasmooth because I’m simply not that cool. This is the conversation that I imagine any beatmaking kid would have with Flying Lotus if he or she had the chance, and to me that’s far more entertaining than the boilerplate interview.

First off, I wanted to test a theory that I’ve been working on for a while: the five albums that most influenced the current beat generation. It can be argued that such simplifying lists are lame and insulting, but just this once I allowed myself this High Fidelity-inspired indulgence.

[@ImYourKid](http://Whether or not he is the most representative of that sound, Flying Lotus is its ambassador. With unmatched popularity in his style of music, he's the door to the LA beat scene for anyone who doesn't live within its geographic or conceptual realm.)

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