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Jazz musician, rapper, and Hip-Hop producer Terrace Martin has served notice that he’s no longer going out of his way to work with “rap friends” any longer.
The acclaimed musician took to social media on Friday (April 22nd) to share an open letter to those who he considers friends in the rap game, stating that he’s “not working with any more rap friends” because he has felt that the love he’s shown these artists hasn’t been reciprocated. “It just hit me, I’ve helped people my whole career. I’ve helped the biggest artist to the smallest artist. Whether it be producing a record or playing keys or sax solos or bringing in musicians to enhance an album to just giving game from all of my experiences. Now I realize that the love and help I’ve been giving for YEARS has never been returned when I need it,” he wrote in the letter shared on his Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/terracemartin/status/1517639994948538368?s=20&t=yOIA4umEvt4OUakPjouPwQ
The Crenshaw native has been a key collaborator with numerous artists. His work with Kendrick Lamar on all four of his albums including good kid, M.A.A.D. city & To Pimp a Butterfly (which earned him one of his three Grammy Awards) has added to his expansive resume which includes working with Travis Scott, Snoop Dogg, and other producers such as Hit-Boy. Martin’s label, Sounds of Crenshaw has stood out as a platform at the vanguard of the continuing lane of progressive Hip-Hop. Last year, he released his latest album, Drones which features Leon Bridges, Ty Dolla $ign, Robert Glasper, and new music from Kendrick Lamar. Martin followed that up by co-producing Black Radio III, the latest album release by Glasper, along with Jahi Sundance and Bryan Michael-Cox.
On Drones, Martin did express his frustration with not getting that love back as one of the issues behind the creative inspiration for the album. He briefly elaborated on it in an interview with HotNewHipHop: “So Drones is a body of work that discusses these issues, how we have a lack of compassion, how we have a lack of trust, how we are people [for whom] nowadays perception is [a] new reality, which is a whole f*cked up thing as well, you know what I’m saying? So the whole body of work is attacking all of these themes, not negatively, attacking them masked as love songs.”
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