Terrace Martin

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born in Los Angeles' Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin found a love for hip-hop early on. The kids growing up around him were freestyling and playing in backyard shows. He grew up in a jazz household, and got his start as a saxophonist, too. With those two backgrounds, Terrace kicked off a career that would make him a trailblazing polymath in pop music. He's worked with rappers like Snoop Dogg, YG and Murs. He was heavily involved in Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, producing many songs on the album including the hit King Kunta. We're revisiting our conversation from 2017. At the time, he'd just released The Sounds of Crenshaw Volume 1 with his band, the Pollyseeds. In 2020, he released seven EPs – including Village Days, and Dinner Party late last year. When he joined us we talked about his thoughts on hip-hop, and jazz that's taught in academic settings. Plus, why working with Kendrick Lamar was so important to him.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:19.7	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:21.8	Teres Martin, a musician and producer, was born in Los Angeles's Crenshaw District.
0:28.0	He first started in music as a saxophonist, who played in jazz bands, went to an arts
0:32.9	high school, he even went to band camp.
0:35.5	He wasn't much older than 18 when he figured out that life wasn't for him.
0:40.0	At the same time, the kids growing up around him were freestyling and making mixed tapes
0:43.8	and beats, and who wouldn't be excited about that.
0:47.6	With those two parallel backgrounds, Teres kicked off a career that would make him a trail
0:52.1	blazing polymath in popular music.
0:55.2	As a producer, he's worked with Snoop Dogg, Charlie Wilson, YG, Kendrick Lamar.
1:00.7	As a solo artist, he's released about half a dozen albums.
1:04.4	Teres channels classic artists like Slice Stone, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Herbie
1:08.5	Hancock, while also landing some pretty great features.
1:12.6	Heavy hitters like Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Wiz Khalifa, and the aforementioned K-DOT.
1:19.6	Teres isn't the kind of guy to be slowed down by anything, including a pandemic.
1:24.2	In 2020, he released seven EPs, including Village Days, a record that features a jazz
1:29.5	tribute to the late Nipsy Hustle.
1:46.0	When I interviewed Teres Martin in 2017, he just released a record with his band The
1:50.3	Poly Seeds, it's called The Sounds of Crenshaw Volume 1.
2:20.3	Teres Martin, welcome to Bullseye.
2:40.4	I'm thrilled to have you on the show.
	...

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