Past episodes of Donald Glover’s FX hit Atlanta have featured artists like OutKast, Bill Withers and Yo Gotti, to help illustrate its titular city as both a Southern and hip-hop mecca, to critical acclaim. But the show outdid itself during last night’s fifth episode.
Viewers saw Paper Boi attempt to pin down his go-to barber for a haircut, to an original soundtrack by Thundercat and Flying Lotus. Hiro Murai, who has directed Glover’s music videos and several episodes of Atlanta himself, confirmed the news last night on Twitter.
s/o to @flyinglotus and @Thundercat for that score #atlantafx 🙌
— Hiro Murai (@MuraiHiro) March 30, 2018
This surprise soundtrack was a collaboration among friends. When Glover first approached jazz bassist and good pal Thundercat to score a future episode, Thundercat enlisted the help of longtime collaborator Flying Lotus. Murai had coincidentally directed the jaw-dropping music video for FlyLo’s “Never Catch Me” with Kendrick Lamar. Glover also featured Kendrick’s “LOVE.” in a previous episode of Atlanta.
This original Atlanta score is Flying Lotus’ first new music since he snuck a brand new single into his year-end mix for Brainfeeder in January. When Thundercat isn’t performing on late night TV in Dragonball Z costumes, he makes appearances on shows like Red Bull Radio and Awful Records’ BRUH.
Meanwhile, despite all the accolades Atlanta has received, FX recently nixed Glover’s animated Deadpool series due to “creative differences.”
