Watching Movies with The Sound Off: Mac Miller & Flying Lotus - "S.D.S." (Somebody Do Somethin')

While he's arguably years past his heyday, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers really set the stage for white-bred rappers and seems to have inspired a whole new generation's-worth of angry young white men: Atmosphere, Macklemore, RiFF RAFF, Asher Roth, Mac Miller, Action Bronson, etc. Mac Miller just never really seemed interesting enough for me to wanna check out. But it looks like he's starting to align himself with a slew of genuinely skilled rappers/producers that includes Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs, Hodgy Beats, ScHoolboy Q, Thundercat, Pharrell, and executive producer Diplo. Mac Miller's become a lot more interesting since he started releasing material under his assorted Larry Fisherman, Larry Dollaz, and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival aliases, too. We're talkin' about beautiful Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith covers, hard-hitting Hip-Hop beats, a 5-track Jazz EP, and an instrumental mixtape called Run-on Sentences (Vol. 1).


Miller's latest note-worthy track comes courtesy of rising LA-bred Electronic/Jazz-tinged producer turned rapper, Flying Lotus (Captain Murphy). It's the first single from Mac Miller's upcoming sophomore album, Watching Movies with The Sound Off, for which he's supposedly recorded 400+ tracks. Director Red Arrow arranges a cheese-tastic duel to the death scene between Mac Miller's "Without Me"-reminiscent super-hero and a menacing villain played by washed up 80's heart-throb, Corey Feldman. Miller somehow manages to weave references to Dawson's Creek, Dylan from Making The Band 2, and David Duchovny into his rapped verses, which are then laced in and out of Flying Lotus' Experimental Hip-Hop-leaning beat. Whether you're a diehard Mac Miller fan or a skeptical on-looker like myself, just go ahead and give "S.D.S." a watch/listen; It's a welcomed breath of fresh air in comparison to the Pittsburgh native's run-of-the-mill "Ringtone Rap" Blue Slide Park era material. Watching Movies with The Sound Off is currently slated for a TBD June 2013 release on Rostrum Records.