Three Legendary Nights in Music
Written by SOURCE on April 18, 2022
Flying Lotus reveals his identity as mysterious rapper Captain Murphy while performing with Earl Sweatshirt at The Low End Theory.
Rumors swirled when an unknown rapper named Captain Murphy hit the blogs with an Earl Sweatshirt collaboration in July of 2012. Released on Adult Swim’s Singles Program, the Sweatshirt-assisted track “Between Friends” was followed by two off-kilter videos for “Mighty Morphin Foreskin” and “Shake Weight.”
Rapping behind a cartoon image and a distorted voice, Murphy dropped a 35-minute album and accompanying visual entitled Duality later that fall. Backed by quirky and kaleidoscopic NSFW imagery, the vintage piece had social media platforms abuzz. With beats crafted by first-rate producers Madlib, Flying Lotus, Just Blaze, and TNGHT, fans theorized Captain Murphy to be either Earl, Tyler, The Creator, Flying Lotus or a combination of the three.
When the enigmatic lyricist announced a show at Los Angeles’ long-running music series The Low End Theory (where Odd Future made their performance debut), anticipation ran so high that concertgoers lined up outside The Airliner earlier that day. Crammed into the small venue filled with regulars and curious newcomers, host Nocando and DJ King Henry warmed up the crowd before the mystery man of the hour appeared. Donned in a ski mask and sequined gold cape, Captain Murphy grabbed the mic and proceeded to perform Duality.
The crowd erupted when Earl Sweatshirt stepped out on to the stage to perform alongside Murphy. After a performance of “The Prisoner,” the moment of truth finally arrived. “Just between us,” Murphy said, before he revealed himself to be genre-bending producer Flying Lotus. Met with fervent cheers, FlyLo basked in glory before L.A. rap crew Pac Div closed out the night.
In 2013, Flying Lotus told XXL why he created the alter ego. “I just wanted to pay dues in the way that I feel rappers should. Earn that shit. That was really the only reason why I was going with the mystery thing and trying to not tell people who I was out of the gate. I wanted people to take me seriously,” he explained.
Though Captain Murphy never intended to release any music, he reconsidered after receiving support from Earl and Adult Swim.
“None of this is planned, man. I’m still kind of freaked out,” he said. “Then my buddy at Adult Swim heard the track. And this guy is one of my good friends. He really supported a lot of it. He was like, ‘You gotta put it out.’ So I put it out and at the same time I leaked this ‘Mighty Morphin’ Foreskin’ song.”
Years later, Flying Lotus shared that his work helped formulate Kendrick Lamar’s revolutionary To Pimp a Butterfly LP during an encounter on The Yeezus Tour. “I played him a folder of beats that I was keeping close for my next Captain Murphy project. Gave him all the beats …Later that night he told me he had the concept for the album,” he wrote on Twitter.
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