I was playing bass when I was a kid; I play bass now. I used to draw pictures when I was a kid, and I draw pictures now. I talked backwards and weird when I was a kid, and I talk backwards now.
— Thundercat
I'm kind of a simple guy. The best way you can describe it is, I'm the same person I was when I was a kid. Everyone's like, 'Of course you are,' but I'm like, 'No, seriously.' I liked 'ThunderCats' when I was a kid; I call myself Thundercat now.
My parents were very encouraging in having us get into the arts, whereas I have a lot of friends that didn't have that.
The truth is hip hop has always complemented jazz and vice versa, but there's always been this communication barrier that exists based on music to lyrics.
When you put a top on something and try to bottle it, that's when it dies.
I've grown up with jazz - the Joe Hendersons, Oliver Nelsons, Miles Davis and stuff - but I was also listening to, like, Slipknot, Korn, and Rage Against the Machine. There was all of that weaved - interweaved - in there, and being from L.A., you tend to know your musical history.
No other mammal is as deceitful as the human being.
You love 'Dragon Ball Z' for what it is, but when you really start to look at it, you're like, 'What the hell am I watching?' sometimes.
I'm not Beyonce or Trey Songz or anything, so every now and again, I feel a little like, 'Are they listening to me, or am I just sounding crazy singing to myself?' I feel like that sometimes.
I hate studios; I'll be honest with you. People get weird in the studio. I've had some great and terrible times with people. People's personalities come out in the worst way.
Even if you didn't want to have anything to do with the politics, you have to.
When I was younger, I was always a musician that could play by ear better than I could analytically.
I've paid attention to guys growin' up like Richard Pryor or Paul Mooney. The message that they were sending with what they did was so much bigger than them.
Singing and playing live can be difficult. Like, in the studio, I would record either the music track first or the vocal first. I don't necessarily do them together.
Sometimes I practice to Allan Holdsworth or John McLaughlin, but I don't just practice to jazz and jazz-fusion albums. I'll practice to TV theme music - one of my favorites is 'M*A*S*H.' I'll just play along with anything on the TV.
Driving around with my dad, growing up, he would play everything: Philip Bailey, Manhattan Transfer, Frank Zappa, Cream. I'd be like, 'Dad, cut this stuff off!' And he'd say, 'No, you're gonna listen to it.' I didn't understand why he liked it so much. In my mind, I would be thinking about the theme song to 'Sonic the Hedgehog.'
I actually went to an arts middle school with Shia LaBeouf, but even there, I was one of the weirder kids.
Azealia Banks - love what she's doing.
The church we grew up playing at was not one of those churches known for its music, but it was just this all-around energy that would be happening because, at the same time we'd be playing in church, we'd be playing in the city jazz band under Reggie Edwards.
I appreciate my parents for everything they instilled in me and my brothers.
I love Drake's music.
I don't look at my instrument as having one specific role; I was raised to go as far as you can. But Raphael Saadiq hated my bass. He told me to throw it away. And playing in Snoop's band, there was a time when my bass was more annoying to everyone than helpful. They would get on my case: 'Can you make your bass sound like more of a bass?'
I try and act like I'm all there. But I'm not!
'Mortal Kombat,' the first arcade one, that soundtrack sounds like a Chick Corea album.
I do enjoy a bit of the fantasy world that anime provides, but at the same time, I need the reality in it. I'm very much a stickler about the actual animation. I'm not into the cutesy, stereotypical animation with big eyes and a small chin. That annoys the hell out of me.
There's worse things in life than death.
Songs being nine to 10 minutes long? Everyone is scared to to do it.
I remember swallowing my tooth up in a high chair, but I definitely don't remember the first time I played bass.
My first reaction to playing at Coachella was like a kid who has no idea of the rules. I just wanted to go have a jam session with my friends. I didn't get that we couldn't just jump on one another's stages while they were performing!
I don't think it's corny to pray at all.
I can fall asleep in the shower without drowning.
Reading and exercising are two things in life that are not necessary.
At the start of high school, I looked like a girl... to a very major degree. I had really long hair and a really round face with no facial hair. And I went to a very rough high school.
I've never been called the black sheep. Everybody in my family had something weird about them, like, 'What's wrong with you?!' We all were black sheep.
I don't play with toys anymore. I mean, I do play with toys, but not like when I was a kid. I don't crash cars into each other, but now I collect certain toys.
It was actually working with Kendrick Lamar that pushed me further into the act of songwriting, specifically.
It's a blessing and a curse at the same time, the idea of genre.
Why do we think the '70s were so awesome? That 'freeness' of music was there.
I remember, with Kendrick on 'To Pimp a Butterfly,' I was in tears. I literally was because it had pulled me and pushed me and stretched me and crushed me and expanded me. It was like I didn't know which way was up. By the end of it, I felt like I was floating in the ocean like a carcass.
The world is sick.
'Looney Tunes' was not a children's cartoon. I don't care what anybody says. It was very politically charged, very racial. And then they tried to soften it up for kids later. But it was for the adults.
I personally didn't realize people would enjoy my voice, I guess. I'm happy that they do, but I didn't know what to expect.
Creatively, I'm not one to advocate people knowing every little nuance about you sometimes.
At the end of the day, it's not like were not going to die. It's not like there is this one guy that's, like, 900.
You can do all kinds of things with your instrument outside of its surface purpose. My bass is my crutch, but the best crutch I could have.
If you can fart in front of somebody, you know that they love you.
Prayer is not passive. It takes a big man to pray - and to admit that he prays.
I'm left-handed.
When I invite people over to my apartment, they usually don't like it because the music I play confuses the crap out of them - I'm making people listen to the 'Final Fantasy' soundtrack, and they're like, 'Why is this happening? Let's just leave and find somebody who wants us to have fun and not teach us about something.'
I went to Locke High School in Watts towards the end of the super gangbanging era.
