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Nerdist Premiere: “Cosplay” by Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus)

Flying Lotus, one of our favorite experimental producers, has been on an awesomely morbid tip as of late. There was that picture of him holding eyeballs in the webbings of his fingers. The name of his upcoming album–out October 7–is stylized as an all-caps threat: YOU’RE DEAD. His recent album sampler featured graphic, visceral illustrations from Shintaro Kago. And yesterday, we all saw the sordid, semi-demonic origin story of FlyLo’s rapping alter ego, Captain Murphy, whose menacing laugh sort of reminds me of Baron Samedi’s bellow in Goldenye.

Captain Murphy– a reference to the captain of Sealab–first appeared mysteriously in the summer of 2012 with “Between Friends”, featuring Earl Sweatshirt, amidst a storm of conjecture about this new rapper’s identity. Ultimately it was revealed that this was yet another side project of the master producer. However, we have never known the mission statement or modus operandi of this alter ego until recently, and now we have brand new track, “Cosplay”, to help parse exactly what kind of persona Captain Murphy is.

“Cosplay” is the latest single in Adult Swim’s Singles series, which has consistently delivered a bold spectrum of jams.The production is grim and spare, while Murphy’s vocals sounds like he was summoned from a Ouija board and is communicating from a different plane. “Cosplay like she nerdy…prefer it when she hurt me”, he raps, making one of our most beloved extracurricular activities sound way more insidious than we’re used to. Whatever this fascination with the aesthetic of evil/grotesqueness, we’re very intrigued. Now to play “Cosplay” on repeat for a while.

You can download “Cosplay” for free at adultswim.com/singles beginning August 18.

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