Terrace Martin via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other...
- Steps from Terrace Martin:
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
- Steps forward by: The Matrix
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Terrace Martin
- City: Los Angeles, California
- Country: United States
My Life & Work
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Bio:
Terrace Martin is a notable musician, rapper and producer from the city of Los Angeles and from the beginning of his career he has lent his skills to artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, 9th Wonder, Talib Kweli and many, many others.
Shattering the acknowledged rules of hip-hop production, he samples everything from funk to jazz to classical to create fresh and original tracks. His productions have made him one of the most sought after producers from the streets of Los Angeles to across the country. His father was a jazz musician, while his mother was a gospel singer, destining him for a life in music.
“I grew up in the middle with only hip-hop,” Martin says. “My parents taught me that there’s only good and bad music.” He began playing the piano at the age of six and at age 13, a friend encouraged Terrace to take up the saxophone and he did, finding one for $150 and learning to play it by himself. His Godfather Stemz Hunter, also a saxophonist, suggested Terrace enroll at Santa Monica High School to sharpen his musical chops. He walked in not knowing what a scale was and soon found himself practicing up to seven hours a day.
Martin made a decision to transfer to Locke High, an LAUSD school with a tough reputation within an earshot of gang-ridden Watts where the artistically-inclined gravitated. While attending Locke High, under the auspice of Reggie Andrews, Martin became first chair of the All-State jazz band.
As a child prodigy, Martin gained the interest of talk show host Jay Leno who provided a $30,000 scholarship and purchased Martin’s first professional saxophone. Fresh out of high school, Martin attended Cal Arts but decided school was not for him and opted, instead, to go professional. Martin was not only recognized by Hollywood and music industry elites, he also found favor in the jazz world where world-renowned jazz musician, Billy Higgins made Martin a member of his World Stage All-Stars playing in the historic Leimert Park. From World Stage, Martin began touring with Puff Daddy and God's Property, presented by Kirk Franklin.
“I didn’t believe in suffering to play, like why do musicians gotta suffer to play? Eating Top Ramen isn’t cool. I wanted to be mainstream.” With that mentality guiding him, Terrace worked hard to get his beats placed for major artists’ albums. He scored a minor hit with 213’s “Joystick,” and went on to land beats on the Doggfather’s “Rhythm and Gangsta: The Masterpiece” and “Ego Trippin” albums.
Martin came from behind the board when he released his first project, The Demo and since has released a number of critically acclaimed masterpieces.
Martin’s projects feature many guest appearances from the peers and mentors he has worked with who have lent their expertise to encourage the budding artist’s career. That includes verses and production from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Pete Rock, DJ Quik, Kurupt, and plenty of others. In late 2010, Terrace Martin and radio personality Devi Dev released the EP "Here, My Dear”, inspired by Marvin Gaye's critically acclaimed 1978 album of the same name. The EP has appearances from Snoop Dogg, Charlie Wilson, Kurupt, Problem, Kendrick Lamar and pianist Kenneth Crouch.
In 2010, he executive-produced Kurupt’s “Streetlights” album and formed a group called Melrose with LA underground rap hero Murs that put out a self-titled album in early 2011. In 2012, Martin released a number of highly regarded projects, and in 2013 he graced the airwaves with his first highly anticipated independent release, 3 Chord Fold, a fusion project that brings together some of music’s best, hitting fans with a vibe reminiscent of his 2009 release Hear, My Dear. 3ChordFold: Remixed was subsequently released at the end of 2013 and the three chords were completed with the release of 3ChordFold: Pulse in Spring 2014, which featured many live performances with guest appearances by Robert Glasper, Thundercat and more. Pulse also included new original tracks. Martin released his latest project, Velvet Portraits in April of 2016 and has launched a supergroup, The Pollyseeds, whose album, Sounds of Crenshaw Vol 1 will be released on July 14th.
While spending time with numerous luminaries in the studio, Terrace is one of the few artists in hip-hop who seamlessly works with underground, emerging and established artists; often on the same song. And it’s something he’s proud of. “To me, I just bridge the dope people with the dope people,” says Martin. His position in hip-hop music is unbridled, but it is his jazz musicianship that separates his sound from his peers.
From jazz to hip-hop, Martin’s role models include Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Stitt, Grover Washington, Jr., Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, Battlecat, Premier, Pete Rock, and 1580 K-Day. “I started producing hip-hop tracks because it was the music of my time, but I never lost my love for jazz.” Martin says.
Terrace Martin is currently a staff producer for legendary Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Top Dawg Entertainment (Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q) where he has lent his talents heavily to the critically acclaimed and highly anticipated To Pimp A Butterfly. He works closely with DJ Mustard and YG and continues to work closely with his mentor, Dr. Dre. Terrace can also be found performing with his live band for his growing fan base.
Contact Information
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Management/Booking:
Press Contact
bookingterrace@gmail.com
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Twitter: terracemartin
- ▶ Instagram: terracemartin
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA3wFiTvxLV29HH46uA-y9A
- ▶ Vimeo Channel: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCN5vXTdu4G2NyDoWS5MnRSA
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/4PCIOf8X75vWdD1PbLpg3c
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/3dQfzdfi07RM7pgumEWGJL
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/5YgYbGti0rKFKL9H9mqV1B
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/3jVyQ0ynHkn1fq1BaSHsw8
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/2RtYSN590nisDeVMevJsrr
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/5KzadspMEe6R6sDrRnhZFH
The world's artistry via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other ...
... a project conceived and built in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia, Brazil initially for the discoverability of this singular region's dispossessed genius.
All explained in the window immediately below. Followed — beneath this window — by scores of magnificent artists, each leading to myriads more artists/categories. Inside this window also may be found our Brazilian record store radio, named by British journal The Guardian as one of 10 of the Best Radio Stations Around the World!
IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles -- jungle and desert and dense urban centers -- both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. It absorbed over ten times the number of African slaves taken to the United States of America, and much of its aboriginal population was absorbed into the general population-at-large. Its people have lived under oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption, with elements of these still strongly entrenched today.
But!
Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.
For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...
Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.
Raimundo Sodré, in a conversation ranging from New Orleans to Harlem and the South Side of Chicago ... through Appalachia and Irish villages and Russian shtetls and the unofficial symbol of Brazil's Bahian-born national music (the pandeiro) almost certainly having arrived in Brazil in the hands of Sephardic Jews (including conversos) fleeing the Inquisition, once remarked: "Where there's misery, there's music!"
A pandeirista on the roof. And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.
