By TJ Love
For most fans of black music Terrace Martin’s name rings a bell. He’s ubiquitous across mainstream rap and R&B in addition to being a presence in the underground scene. It’s gotten to the point where if you see his name attached to anything there’s a high probability it’s dope. Despite this correlation there’s not too many folks that know what this man actually does. For the uninitiated, the rapper/producer has released his new project 3ChordFold, an enterprise Martin himself is describing as a mix between Quincy Jones and Dr. Dre. That’s an ambitious statement, and it may be entirely appropriate, but the way Martin bridges gaps between different genres is more Robert Glasper than anything else.
At fourteen tracks long 3ChordFold is loaded with features that run the gamut from fellow Angelinos Kendrick Lamar, Snopp Dogg, and Ab-Soul to Musiq Soulchild, James Fauntleroy, and Lala Hathaway. Sometimes when an artist has a lot of guests on their album it can be a bad thing-some don’t have the talent and work ethic to pull it off for dolo and having a rack of other folks involved can hide their deficiencies. This isn’t the case with Terrace Martin. If anything, having all the guest stars showcases his abilities as a collaborator and more importantly as a facilitator. He’s also humble enough to let other like-minded producers lend a hand as 9th Wonder co-produced four joints, along with Robert Glasper, Focus, and Quincy Jones(!) producing one each.
At this point “Grown-N-Sexy” has almost become a pejorative phrase, but Martin’s new project is definitely grown folks music, albeit refreshing. Ab-Souls Intro kicks off the album and one of the aspects that sticks out immediately is Martin’s attention to detail. These aren’t just beats fam, they’re arrangements. The interplay between the horns, keys, and myriad other sounds really make Ab-Soul’s verse secondary to the instrumental itself. It wasn’t a bad verse, it just takes a back seat to the serious WORK this man is putting in on the boards. Ditto, the Kendrick Lamar track. K. Dot does his semi-retarded robot voice thing on the chorus and for the hook and in between drops some by-the-numbers love raps, that again, really are the last thing the listener is processing while listening to the multi-layered vocals, smooth chords, and low end that propels everything along lovely.
Martin teams up with Musiq Soulchild for Over Time, and out of all the rap verses dedicated to the opposite sex on this album, Terrace Martin’s are the best. Go figure. In terms of the production itself? Faces will scrunch, eyes will close in bliss, and heads will nod. It really sounds like the bastard child of Low End Theory era Q-Tip and Fantastic Vol. II Dilla. It’s organic, moog-y, melodic, the bass thumps and the snares are the icing on top of the cake. Wait until you hear the second half of the last track on 3ChordFold, the 12 minute opus Gone, with Robert Glasper, Punch, and Tiffany Gouche. It’s almost indescribable. Stevie Wonder covers and homages are a dime a dozen but this is head and shoulders above anything anybody else has done.
I could go on, but I’m sure by now that ya’ll get the picture.
3ChordFold is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, in any genre. It’s a strong and cohesive piece of work and Obama better have a press conference if it doesn’t win a Grammy. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Hip-Hop head, aging backpacker, or whatever but I know good music when I hear it. This shit is beautiful, b. Maybe Terrace Martin can excite and galvanize R&B the same way Kendrick Lamar’s much-ballyhooed verse on Control did for mainstream rap.
4.25 Out of 5
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