2015 · The Epic
Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) was built on jazz musicians: Robert Glasper
— Robert Glasper on Playing Jazz Piano on To Pimp a Butterfly, Slate, 2015
sourcedLibrary — Double Bass
Thundercat
3 albums as leader and 8 as sideman (2013–2021), each listed chronologically.
As Leader · 3
As Sideman · 8
Notes on these albums · 5
2013 · Apocalypse and 1 more
The bass on To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) is Thundercat's. Before the jazz and soul world claimed him he had spent his teens and twenties in the crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies — a gig he still held around the time of his own Apocalypse (2013).
2021 · Drones
The musicians on Drones
Makaya McCraven2017 · Drunk
In 2015, Kamasi Washington emerged as a new voice in jazz with his triple album The Epic — but that same year he was also arranging strings on To Pimp a Butterfly, a landmark hip-hop record. He'd already left a mark outside jazz before the jazz world took notice.
2015 · Gray Area and 1 more
Terrace Martin trained as a jazz saxophonist, but in 2015 he helped shape the sound of a landmark hip-hop album, To Pimp a Butterfly. Around the same time he was quietly releasing straight jazz records like Velvet Portraits and Gray Area under his own name, moving between the two worlds with the same hands.
