6. FLYING LOTUS

2012 was the year that Flying Lotus got weird. Granted, he was always weird, but the twisted and heady take on instrumental hip-hop FlyLo started in the late ’00s has become the norm in 2012. So while he should have been celebrating Until the Quiet Comes, his biggest release yet, with guest appearances from superstars Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu, he instead decided to become Captain Murphy, the mysterious MC who was only revealed to be Steve Ellison in recent weeks.