Hear DJ Candlestick's Chopped & Screwed Remix of Flying Lotus' "Dead Man's Tetris" [Premiere]

Celebrating the 3-year anniversary of You're Dead!

It's easy to forget that there was once a time when a chopped & screwed remix wasn't as requisite to a release cycle as the album itself. The Chopstars, along with the universal palette for southern-cooked half-speed specials, have proliferated beyond the tipping point. These days, the styrofoam cup runneth over, and the world is generally better for it.

WATCH:The Flying Lotus-Scored Blade Runner 2022 Anime Short in Full

Back in pre-Black Messiah 2014, however, a Chopstars-helmed purple edit was far from guaranteed. OG Ron C and his crew of local on-air DJs had yet to bring the syrup-greased machine to its current level of peak efficiency. DJ Candlestick, the go-to Chopstar for titles of strange, future-forward varieties, has a sprawling catalog of personal edits that includes never-slopped reworks of Sampha's Process, a Thundercat-endorsed recalibration of Drunk and a stunning Barry Jenkins-approved edit of the Moonlight soundtrack.

2014 is of particular note, as it was on this day of that year Flying Lotus unleashed his high-arch fifth studio album, You're Dead!. For most of us, it was a logical extension of the BRAINFEEDER chief's increasingly proficient and exploratory chops, cementing his position as The Beat Scene's cosmic jazz composer, alongside Kendrick Lamar, who'd yet to reveal his own densely-formed jazz-funk opus, To Pimp a Butterfly. For others, it was the perfect point of entry to a body of work that only becomes more impactful and more revealing of that mark on current and forthcoming generations of producers with each subsequent replay.

HEAR:Thundercat's Drunk as a Chopped & Screwed Suite

And so, as we revisit the brilliance of You're Dead! on its three-year anniversary, Candlestick has offered a glimpse at the never-before-heard remix of Flying Lotus' "Dead Man's Tetris." A track already heavily indebted to The Chopstars drawled-out drop (with the pitched-down ramblings of alter musical ego Captain Murphy emulating that of Ron C and Candlestick's hallmark greetings) wasn't thought to be an appropriate source for The Chopstars until it was suggested to Flying Lotus by OKP-alum and purveyor of all things trill, Sama'an Ashrawi, who dropped a line for Candlestick and woke up to a remix from the producer at the top of his inbox not long after he made the initial connection.

Hear the aptly-titled "Purple Man's Tetris" below and hold tight for the next transmission.