Being a musical genius comes in handy. If you’re Terrace Martin, for instance, the fact that you’ve spent nearly two decades toiling behind the scenes — working for Quincy Jones for instance — means that when you sit down to record your own album, you’ll be able to wrangle a nice feature or 12. On August 13, the Los Angeles artist will release 3ChordFold, a rap-jazz-soul hybrid that includes appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Snoop Dogg, Problem, Wiz Khalifa, Musiq Soulchild, Lalah Hathaway, and 9th Wonder. Oh, and a little Grammy-winning jazz pianist named Robert Glasper (Mos Def’s former musical director) and a fella named James Fauntleroy, who co-wrote literally every track on Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.
Those last two appear on “No Wrong, No Right,” a lushly produced song about the wages of love gone wrong. In the accompanying video, directed by Furis and Ken Nana, we see images of couples who turn against one another despite their feelings. Meanwhile, Martin calmly rhymes, “That’s when the fighting starts / You say things, I say things, too / We let our pride let the best of us, this ain’t what people in love do.” With his SoCal croak and cool style, the MC recalls Common crossed with Homeboy Sandman, with a distinctly West Coast bent. And ultimately, he just wants you to be happy, even if you guys simply can’t be together anymore — Terrace Martin is nice like that.
