Released: 24/11/23
The debut EP by the brand-new project from the leftfield rapper Smoke DZA and electronica/avant-hip-hop genius Flying Lotus is, as you might expect given the two virtuosic talents involved, ridiculously good. I imagine most people reading this know California’s Flying Lotus (AKA Steven D. Bingley-Ellison) – a ridiculously gifted producer (and DJ, filmmaker and rapper) who’s worked with Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, and Chance the Rapper, etc. – but if you’re not so familiar with Smoke DZA (AKA Sean Joseph Pompey), that fact that he’s worked with Big K.R.I.T., Wiz Khalifa, Action Bronson and A$AP Rocky, among others, says it all – he’s legit, mate.
The phenomenally good Flying Objects is the perfect combination of Flying Lotus’s singular brand of transcendental (he is the grandnephew of Alice Coltrane, after all) blend of hip-hop/electronica and Smoke DZA’s effortless and hypnotic flow – augmented beautifully by the featured guest artists, including Black Thought (The Roots), Estelle, and Conway the Machine, all of whom bring their A-game, and just sound like they’re having a rather lovely time adding their tuppence worth to the duo’s astounding sonic vision quest.