Flying Lotus jumps on The Ringer Music Show podcast to talk about his new Netflix anime series, Yasuke

Is there nothing that Steven Ellison, AKA Flying Lotus, cannot do? With the release of the new Netflix show Yasuke, the grammy-nominated producer, horror writer/director, and Brainfeeder founder can now add executive producer of an anime series to his list of achievements. 

Ellison recently hopped on The Ringer Music Show podcast to discuss his new Netflix anime show, Yasuke. The six-episode series — starring Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield — is based on the real-life historical figure Yasuke, an African samurai who kicked ass in 16th-century Japan. 

Of course Ellison scored the entire show. But he also worked closely to develop it along with the show’s creator, LeSean Thomas (Black Dynamite). In the podcast episode, Ellison spoke on how he helped get more fantasy and experimental elements added to the series, which might have otherwise been a straight-forward biopic:

“There was a rough treatment when I got involved. That was more like a traditional biopic kind of film or a historical drama about Yasuke. When I got involved, I got to write a treatment and LeSean and my treatments kind of got merged together and made into this mashup of a crazy show with historical drama, but with fantasy elements and a lot of heart.” (Steven Ellison, The Ringer).

Ellison’s soundtrack for Yasuke dropped recently via Warp Records with guest spots from Thunder Cat, Niki Randa, and Denzel Curry. Check out the soundtrack and the podcast below.