Three weeks ago Flying Lotus dropped a two-minute epileptic-fit-inducing visual teaser for his upcoming album “You’re Dead.” Fans went wild in anticipation. But with the album’s official release date still a month away, the avant-garde producer built on the hype Wednesday by releasing “Never Catch Me” — a single from the album featuring, of course, Kendrick Lamar.
“Never Catch Me [ft. Kendrick Lamar]”
A-
Flying Lotus
Warp
The track starts with an innocent piano refrain, but is quickly overlaid with a hectic beat. Only a talent like Lamar could rap over such a tempo, which he does like a cat on a tightrope . On first listen though, a worry in my gut was gurgling that Flying Lotus was going to milk the piano riff dry, and that the song was about to fall into that dreaded category of untalented repetitive hip-hop.
But if you know anything about FlyLo, you know he would never. At the 90 second mark, Kendrick drops out for an absurd bass solo that makes me anxious that I’m not on the floor seizing, or dancing like a lunatic. And by the end, the simple piano riff is all but gone, replaced by heavy synths that sneak up on you like this fucked-up-in-the-mind-kid in a Donnie Darko “Frank the Bunny” costume disrupting the peace.