I actually saw the music video of a track off this album before(viðrar vel til loftárása) it had a strong emotional impact on me and it ended up in my music playlist for a while without me getting too much into it(I was mostly in prog rock back then). Now, the album, well, some of its traits found in certain songs are definitely my kind of thing, while I can't exactly say what, other songs are simply not doing much on me. The instrumentation sometimes feels not right at times on certain tracks for me. while other time I think it's spot on, and I kinda like noisy stuff(as you will probably discover in my pick), so I can't really complain.
the Captain Murphy phenomenon was partly a thing of place and time. This was in the middle of the Odd Future hype phenomenon, and along comes this weird Flying Lotus-produced song by Earl Sweatshirt. That song is "Between Friends"
The thing people were confused about was that second part. Captain Murphy was a name no one had heard before, and speculation about who he was immediately started. There were a couple popular candidates, including Tyler the Creator (silly in retrospect), underground weirdo Zeroh, and, what turned out to be true (spoilers), Flying Lotus himself. A handful of singles followed ("Mighty Morphin' Foreskin", "The Ritual", "Shakeweight", "The Killing Joke") and eventually DuAlity itself dropped, both a video version set to a bizarre montage of French pornography (among other things), and a mixtape version that had a different cover for each track.
Captain Murphy, as it turned out, was FlyLo's rapping persona (he'd rhymed on record only once before, and said song sounded very little like Captain Murphy's work), and what a persona. Captain Murphy is presented at various points on DuAlity as a cult leader (the faux "how to be a cult leader" angle is a main theme), a warlock, a shapeshifter, and some sort of demigod or demon. The tape is rather brief, but sounds much longer than it is, songs are typically short and bookended by interludes sampled from obscure films or [adult swim] cartoons. Captain Murphy is not a sympathetic character, DuAlity is his own Luthor, the world as seen from the villain's perspective. Murphy's rhyming is dense with references and wordplay, and gives off the air of a more cultishly-inclined MF DOOM. Over the course of DuAlity he has sex with a ludicrous amount of women, brainwashes tons of people, and probably lights a couple folks on fire. He's not a nice man, but it's hard not to be fascinated by the world he builds.
Guests on the project are few and far between, there's Earl Sweatshirt on the aforementioned "Between Friends", in top monotone multisyllable flow mode. Fellow Brainfeeder MCs Jeremiah Jae and Azizi Gibson show up, the former twice, but by and large it's Murphy's sole show. He carries it, for the most part, though there are occasional dips.
All told it's a very weird tape with little in common with much other rap, and it makes for a unique listening experience.
The textural qualities of the album are pretty interesting to my ears. I’m not entirely sure how much the rapping adds to it, though.
It reminds me that I need to check out Flying Lotus’s work under his own name, at least, so thanks for that. I’m undecided on whether I want to keep this in my collection, so I’ll give it another listen soon and see if I do.
i remember listening to this album back when it was just out and captain murphy's identity was still a mystery, which is kinda odd because i didn't particularly listen to much rap back then. but i do remember liking it back then and actually it still stands up really well now
the whole 'cult' theme works quite well as a logical conclusion of rap's whole self-promotion thing. i mean how big a leap is it from bigging yourself up to being like 'i'm literally the messiah and i own the world.' in any case a few months after this you had kanye west releasing 'yeezus'
production wise flylo obviously knows what he's doing and this shows. i actually think this is my favourite thing flylo's done. his work under his own name is good but it tends a little much towards excess whereas here because the rapping is as important as the instrumental it's necessarily toned down a little (but only a little) and just as importantly, thematically the excess makes sense
i like the kind of dense, textured style to it. shabazz palaces, who i really like, do a similar kind of thing. his flow suits the beats and it pretty convincing with the whole cult leader thing which sounds kind of ludicrous on paper, but he pulls it off well. it's structured brilliantly too
things i'll say against it: for a solidly good album it doesn't have any real standout moments that lift into something really special, and also, if youre gonna write a rap album with this kind of cartoon villain style narrative then you're always going to be in the shadow of madvillainy which really is a proper work of genius (and as much as i do like this album it ain't madvillainy)
but yeah i wouldn't have thought of coming back to listen to this and i enjoyed it a lot. good choice jane
The squeaks on "Shake Weight" remind me of Jean-Jacques Perrey.
Gotta agree the production is top-notch here. Not as much a fan of the rapping, though. I've just got a love-hate relationship with self-aggrandizing lyrics, even tongue-in-cheek ones.
I really love the all of the sampling throughout, but although I do dig the lyrics the vocals seem to somewhat blend into the background and the general chaos
I guess I should say that if u liked this album, there are a handful of other Captain Murphy tracks
the most notable of these is "Between Villains" with Earl Sweatshirt and MF DOOM.
he also has a song with Jonwayne
and of course the Captain's two appearances on FlyLo's own You're Dead!, on "The Boys Who Died in Their Sleep" and "Deadman's Tetris" (which also features Snoop Dogg).
Comments
(The other Jane)
(The other Jane)
It reminds me that I need to check out Flying Lotus’s work under his own name, at least, so thanks for that. I’m undecided on whether I want to keep this in my collection, so I’ll give it another listen soon and see if I do.
the whole 'cult' theme works quite well as a logical conclusion of rap's whole self-promotion thing. i mean how big a leap is it from bigging yourself up to being like 'i'm literally the messiah and i own the world.' in any case a few months after this you had kanye west releasing 'yeezus'
production wise flylo obviously knows what he's doing and this shows. i actually think this is my favourite thing flylo's done. his work under his own name is good but it tends a little much towards excess whereas here because the rapping is as important as the instrumental it's necessarily toned down a little (but only a little) and just as importantly, thematically the excess makes sense
i like the kind of dense, textured style to it. shabazz palaces, who i really like, do a similar kind of thing. his flow suits the beats and it pretty convincing with the whole cult leader thing which sounds kind of ludicrous on paper, but he pulls it off well. it's structured brilliantly too
things i'll say against it: for a solidly good album it doesn't have any real standout moments that lift into something really special, and also, if youre gonna write a rap album with this kind of cartoon villain style narrative then you're always going to be in the shadow of madvillainy which really is a proper work of genius (and as much as i do like this album it ain't madvillainy)
but yeah i wouldn't have thought of coming back to listen to this and i enjoyed it a lot. good choice jane
(The other Jane)
And I recognize the first 30 seconds from a satirical video that looked like it was from the 70s
(The other Jane)
(The other Jane)
Ah, yes. Sealab 2021. Which was a gag dub of Sealab 2020, so technically that's where Captain Murphy came from originally.
Just in case anyone has last minute ideas to chime in with.
We're all just stewing in our own indecision, together.