The Grammy-Winning Producer Behind Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly on Jazz, Hip-Hop, Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, and Building at the Intersection of Two Worlds
Terrace Martin is one of the most creatively alive musicians working in any genre today. As a producer he has shaped some of the most celebrated records of the last decade -- most notably as a key architect of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 21st century. As an instrumentalist he has worked alongside Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, and a who's who of both the jazz and hip-hop worlds. And as a solo artist he has released a string of records that refuse to respect genre lines, synthesizing the two worlds he has always occupied into something entirely his own.
In this conversation with Elmo, Terrace talks about how he grew up straddling jazz and hip-hop in Los Angeles, what it was like to help build the sonic world of To Pimp a Butterfly, his relationship with Kendrick and what makes that creative partnership work, what he learned from Herbie Hancock and Snoop Dogg and why he sees those two as more similar than people expect, and where he thinks the most interesting music is being made right now. This is a conversation about what happens when you refuse to choose between the music you love.
"Jazz and hip-hop were never separate where I came from. They were always the same conversation -- just happening in different rooms."
The inside story of one of the most acclaimed albums in recent memory -- how the record came together, what Terrace's specific role was in shaping its sound, what Kendrick was reaching for and how the musicians around him helped him get there, and what it felt like to be part of making something that turned out to carry that kind of weight. The specific musical decisions that defined the album's sound and what they meant in context.
What it was like to grow up in Los Angeles at the intersection of jazz and hip-hop -- the specific musical environment that shaped him, the mentors and peers who influenced his development, and how the city's unique culture of musicianship gave him the foundation to move fluently between two worlds that much of the industry treated as separate. Why he has never understood why those two things should be seen as different.
His long-running creative relationship with Kendrick Lamar -- how they work together, what each brings to the collaboration, and what makes the creative dialogue between them so productive. His perspective on what makes Kendrick different from any other artist he has worked with and what it has meant for his own creative development to be part of that artistic world over multiple projects and years.
Two relationships that might seem like opposite ends of a spectrum -- but that Terrace sees as connected by the same fundamental seriousness about music. What he learned from each of them, how working with Herbie deepened his understanding of jazz and composition, how working with Snoop deepened his understanding of hip-hop culture and performance, and why he believes the greatest musicians in any genre share the same essential quality.
How Terrace thinks about building a record -- the relationship between live performance and production, what he listens for when he is constructing a sonic world, and how his background as an instrumentalist shapes his approach to the production process in ways that purely technical producers can't replicate. His specific ideas about arrangement, texture, and what makes a piece of music feel alive rather than assembled.
Where Terrace sees music going -- the artists and sounds he thinks are most interesting right now, the specific innovations in the space between jazz and hip-hop that he is most excited about, and what he thinks the next decade in music looks like. His perspective on what the artists who will matter most in the coming generation have in common, and why he is more optimistic about the state of music than most people he talks to.
The To Pimp a Butterfly breakdown: Terrace's first-hand account of how that record was made -- the sessions, the decisions, the things that almost didn't make it and the things that defined the final product. The most detailed inside look at the making of one of the decade's defining albums that you're likely to find anywhere, from someone who was in the room for all of it.
On Kendrick as an artist: what it is actually like to work with someone operating at that level -- the specific things that make Kendrick different, the demands he places on his collaborators, and what Terrace has learned about his own creative capacities from being pushed by someone of that caliber. Candid, specific, and more revealing than most accounts of that creative partnership.
The Herbie Hancock conversation: what Terrace took from his relationship with one of jazz's living legends -- specifically about the relationship between discipline and freedom in music, and how Herbie's approach to improvisation and composition gave him a new way of thinking about what the studio should feel like. One of the most musically instructive passages in Go With Elmo's early run.
Jazz and hip-hop as one culture: Terrace's most direct and fully argued statement of the thesis that has driven his entire career -- that these two musical traditions are not separate genres to be synthesized but a single, continuous cultural conversation that has always been happening. The kind of argument that reframes how you hear both.
The future of music: Terrace's vision of what is coming -- specific, optimistic, and grounded in a deep understanding of where music has been. The kind of answer that makes you want to go immediately listen to everything he recommends.