Let’s Talk About Terrace Martin
Evan Dale // Jan 12, 2022
27 projects. Some are mixtapes in the most classic form of the word, where a dynamic central figure composes a thoroughfare of beats for a mosaic of rappers, vocalists, and even other instrumentalists and producers to adorn their own craft. Some are albums, worthy of any accolade from a source that can understand the gravity of the world that the LA-based composer has and continues to create. And the rest are a scattered selection of EP’s and remixed collections, further detailing the boundless expanse of an unparalleled catalogue. 27 projects through the course of decade have built a label, Sounds of Crenshaw, into one of the most quietly prolific and prosperous empires in music. And yet, there’s not nearly enough talking going on that concerns the already legendary Terrace Martin.
It all started from where you might expect. The West Coast has been an explosive mecca of particularly funk-infused hip-hop and Neo-Soul since the two spectrums’ early roots. It’s only natural that modernity’s most funk-savvy, soul-fueled producer and instrumentalist, too, calls home to Crenshaw Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles. But before we dive deeper, let’s talk about what Terrace Martin does – what he really does – so that we can better understand what he’s built. A producer, of course – a composer really – but so much more. His father, Curly Martin is a legendary improvisational drummer immortalized in the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame. His mother is a singer. And from an early age, piano and saxophone became part of his own lexicon. First chair sax in the California All-State Jazz band, a scholarship to CalArts granted by Jay Leno, and tours with both Puff Daddy and the God’s Property gospel choir, left him submerged in a long life’s worth of experience before he really even got started.
Snoop Dogg was an early catalyst to the direction that Terrace Martin was eventually destined to take his pronounced skillset. A sought-after producer whose own talent can’t be held to the boundaries of that term, Terrace Martin has been doing it all – as much more than a producer – since he first had the chance in 2010. Since then, when his debut album, The Demo first hit the soundscape, music at large has been a whole lot more challenging to define. And that’s a good thing.
More than a decade later, Terrace Martin’s sound is still evolving, and that’s because he doesn’t only have one. Like everyone on this planet, he’s complicated. But unlike anyone on the planet, Terrace Martin has found a way to explore the depth in each and every of his complexities to the tune of a damn good record. His soundscape is complex because his sounds are many, and his draw is simply that he’s omnipotent in exploring new directions that are simultaneously so very rooted in sounds of the past.
If you’re not accustomed to the expansive reach of his sound, his latest project, DRONES, which came at the tail end of 2021, is a perfect place to start. It’s also the perfect thesis on the indescribability of what it is that Terrace Martin curates and creates. For starters, just take a look at the other artistry signed onto it: James Fauntleroy, Ty Dolla $ign, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Cordae, Arin Ray, Smino, Celeste, Channel Tres, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Hit-Boy, Malaya, YG, Leon Bridges, D Smoke, Kim Burrell. Speaking on range, the cast of featuring names involved in DRONES knows no boundaries. Along for the ride are soul-ridden vocalists, a rangy collection of hip-hop lyricists from across a spectrum of eras, House DJ’s, interpretive instrumentalists, composers, and fellow artists whose label as producer also feels short sided. And yet, at the hand of Terrace Martin, DRONES’ entirety feels comfortably drawn akin, impeccably curated.
Instead of adhering to one sound or any genre, Terrace Martin uses his broad scope and those of every artist he works with to defy the idea of genre as we know it. DRONES is more of a mood – something inhabiting the West Coast synthesizers of 90’s South Central, merged with mid-century instrumental prowess, teeming with soulful registers, and then thrown into oncoming traffic driven by a swatch of particularly outspoken, well-spoken, and uniquely spoken wordsmiths. It’s like if one central name produced the entirety of the perfect, meandering smoking playlist. DRONES do fly high, after all, and that’s kind of exactly how the project feels.
And that’s realistically how Terrace Martin’s entire career has felt. It’s impossible to sit here writing about how each and every of his last decade’s 27 projects have contributed to music at large. It would be irresponsible for me to even say that as I sit here writing this, that I’ve listened to all 27. But what is responsible is simply to have a conversation orbiting Terrace Martin in the first place. One would be hard-pressed to find a name that has contributed more to music, when music as we know it heading into 2022 is defined by the indefinable grey areas that musicians across the spectrum are exploring. A decade ago, Terrace Martin began building the foundation for that fluid, dynamic post-genre sphere to live. And a decade later, the endlessness of possibility that comes in tow with the grey-area, the indefinable, and the new oh so blended into the old defines music’s future as one that is more honest to the complexities in our tastes, while staying true to the simplicity at the center of that notion.
Do yourself a favor and put on anything Terrace Martin has done. Take a look at all the names that have featured on his work. Do some digging to see what he’s produced outside of that. And then try to imagine a musical present that exists without him. You’ll find that through a decade, and through projects like DRONES in particular that can at once define a moment while also refusing to belong on any plane of time, Terrace Martin has largely deconstructed musical boundaries, redefined what’s possible, and been at the core of a new renaissance in modern music.