Steven Ellison is the nephew of Alice Coltrane, wife of saxophonist John Coltrane, and is also a cousin of musician Ravi Coltrane. In total, Ellison has released 5 albums as Flying Lotus: 1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010) , Until the Quiet Comes (2012), and You're Dead! (2014), all of which have received positive reviews. In addition, he released the mixtape Duality as the rap persona Captain Murphy in 2012. He has done the background music for the Adult Swim block on the TV channel Cartoon Network, as well as a song for an episode of Adventure Time.