After toying with our curiosity for the better part of a few months, Flying Lotus stopped dangling the carrot we were all too eager to chew on and revealed that he was the enigmatic Captain Murphy. Unlike other hip-hop masked men, like MF DOOM, early Ghostface or even French emcee Fuzati, Lotus hid behind the ever-evolving and at times impenetrable mask the internet provides instead of a cheap Halloween face.
Some would argue that Captain Murphy lost some of his draw after Lotus named himself as the man behind the mask. And I might be with them on that front, but it did nothing to take away from Murphy's music, and only added to Lotus' legacy.
With the video to "The Killing Joke," Murphy's mystery is furthered chipped away at even if the headlight eyes and glittery demon mouth are handled well. Its wandering visuals, and play with shadows, fit the Os Mutantes-sampled track to great effect, but the track has been done better by the CunninLynguists' Kno.
Despite that little bit of knowledge, Murphy's "The Killing Joke" remains as hypnotizing as its hypnotist wheel-eyed protagonist.
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Comments
It seems that now FlyLo has exposed CM's identity, I think the fact that this video still tries to hide behind the cloak-and-mask theme seems a little disenchanting for the demographic that originally picked up on his talent, like CM is a one-trick pony. Hopefully FlyLo will try to build on the character in releases/videos to come, just like Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett did with Gorillaz. Albeit he had to fit the lyrics to the visuals, so I can understand why the video "pretends" that he's still a mysterious persona.