Gregory Shorter Jr., better known as Los Angeles-reared producer and musician Ras G, sadly passed at the too-young age of 40 on July 29th. Now, Flying Lotus — both a collaborator and friend of Ras — has shared this touching tribute to his fallen comrade, “Black Heaven.”
The last time I saw G was really special to me, and there was something about the timing I just felt was really urgent to go see him,” FlyLo said to BBC’s Gilles Peterson during the radio broadcaster’s tribute show to Ras on August 3rd. “And partially because I had this idea in my brain that’s been kinda brewing for the past couple years. I had this idea for a movie, and I really wanted Ras G to be a consultant on it because of some of the subject matter in the film. So, I went to go see him and I told him a bunch about this idea that I had, and he started kicking over some cool ideas, and we started just going back and forth about it. It was really, really cool. He even gave me the title for it, in the end, called Black Heaven. And, I thought, That’s a great title. I wish I could tell y’all what the movie’s actually about. You know, I’m more inspired now than ever to write it and to finish it and to make sure it exists.”
“Black Heaven” is both the last song Lotus recorded with his Ras G and collaborator the last time that he saw him. Hear it below.
