Legendary Hip Hop Producer Reveals UFO Obsession (Ft. Flying Lotus)
July 31, 2025
AI Summary
5 min readFlying Lotus on UFOs, Music, and the Weird Middle Ground
Flying Lotus—born Steven Ellison—is one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the last two decades, but he also directs films, runs the Brainfeeder label, and comes from a musical lineage that includes Alice Coltrane (his great-aunt) and grandmother Marilyn McLeod, who wrote "Love Hangover" for Diana Ross. In this conversation with Jesse Michels, he reveals a long-running fascination with UFOs that started with DMing Michels on Twitter and has since pulled him deep into the community's lore, personalities, and contradictions. He is not a true believer, but he is a committed observer—someone who finds the phenomenon endlessly compelling precisely because it resists easy categorization.
The UFO Community's Religion Problem
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:50) **Introducing Flying Lotus** - Jesse Michels welcomes legendary hip-hop producer, director, and filmmaker Flying Lotus, expressing surprise at their shared interest in UFOs.
- 2 (05:17) **Gateway Drugs and Community Friction** - Flying Lotus names his favorite UFO stories, including Bob Lazar and Eric Hacker, and discusses the intense, often religious, nature of the UFO community.
- 3 (10:22) **The Endgame of Disclosure and Personal Sightings** - The conversation shifts to how disclosure might happen and Flying Lotus shares a potential personal sighting.
- 4 (12:57) **Anti-Gravity, Whistleblowers, and the "Big UFO"** - The discussion moves to the intersection of anti-gravity technology and UFO reports, and the credibility of whistleblowers like Jake Barber and Ross Coulthart.
- 5 (16:48) **The Burden of Proof and Whistleblower Courage** - The conversation critiques the UFO community's gatekeepers and praises the bravery of whistleblowers like Jake Barber and David Grusch.
- 6 (22:37) **The Art Bell Call and the Need for a Movie** - Flying Lotus plays a classic, eerie Art Bell clip of a caller claiming aliens are extra-dimensional beings who have infiltrated the military.
- 7 (25:28) **Spielberg, John Williams, and Hidden Clues in Film** - The conversation explores Steven Spielberg's possible insider knowledge of UFOs, hidden in films like *Close Encounters*, *E.T.*, and *Back to the Future*.
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Show Notes
Our American Alchemist this week is @Flying Lotus.
One of the most innovative minds in music and film, joins for a raw, unfiltered deep dive into the mysteries of the universe. From Skinny Bob and UFO disclosure to DMT’s otherworldly realms, Spielberg’s hidden knowledge, and the strange overlap of time travel, consciousness, and alien contact, this conversation is a rare fusion of culture, art, and high strangeness.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when one of the most creative artists alive steps into the UFO rabbit hole, this is it.
| Flying Lotus |
IG ➤ https://www.instagram.com/flyinglotus
Website ➤ https://flying-lotus.com/
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