Thundercat Quotes

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.'

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I'm left-handed.

- Thundercat

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.

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'Mortal Kombat,' the first arcade one, that soundtrack sounds like a Chick Corea album.

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It doesn't even feel like racism is real. It just feels like the weirdest ploy, like we're just being had on so many levels. It's even kind of funny when you think about it. A reason not to like someone is 'because you're black.' C'mon, man. How dumb is that?

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Yeah, I'd like to collaborate with God. Do a collaboration with God!

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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!

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I feel like I try to write from an honest of a place as I can - without scaring people off too much, I guess.

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I always wanted to be involved with music that would stand the test of time, being on one of those definitive things that you have to have listened to at some point.

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Prayer is not passive. It takes a big man to pray - and to admit that he prays.

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I remember playing Billy Cobham's 'Total Eclipse' for Snoop Dogg. I also played him Frank Zappa, 'Apostrophe.' And I played him 'Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast.'

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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.

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My high school teacher, Reggie Andrews, was a huge factor in my learning my instrument. He didn't play bass, but it was the part where he gave me a knowledgeable perspective of what it was that I was doing.

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A lot of joking stems from a very dark place a bit.

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I'll look at superheroes and comics and stuff and wonder, 'Why wouldn't you dress like that if you could?' With fashion, I look at it as a way to express that. I don't really pull any punches on it; otherwise, you get caught up in this nexus of dressing like everyone else.

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My family is all musicians - my dad plays drums, my mom plays flute, my older brother plays drums, my little brother plays drums and piano. For some reason, I didn't get the memo, so I just play bass.

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My parents were very encouraging in having us get into the arts, whereas I have a lot of friends that didn't have that.

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I grew up in Compton: 116th and Wilmington.

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As a working musician, your first instinct is to try and do your job. It wasn't always my aspiration to sing; I just wanted to be a great working musician. But then Flying Lotus suggested I try, and nothing has ever been the same since.

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I'm a guy where my perfect pitch has been altered by the fact that I usually tune up to what's going on. When I was a kid, it was horrible! If two notes were playing right next to each other, and they were dissonant, it would drive me nuts. If it was something that sounded like it was in between notes, it'd make me cringe.

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When I'm at home creating music, I usually wind up laughing. It's always, like, funny - like, what the hell did I just write?

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It's a blessing and a curse at the same time, the idea of genre.

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My theory is if Tony Williams can sing, and if Kanye West can sing, so can I! So I try!

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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.

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I appreciate my parents for everything they instilled in me and my brothers.

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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.

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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.

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I actually went to an arts middle school with Shia LaBeouf, but even there, I was one of the weirder kids.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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I remember swallowing my tooth up in a high chair, but I definitely don't remember the first time I played bass.

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It was actually working with Kendrick Lamar that pushed me further into the act of songwriting, specifically.

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Kenny Loggins pours his heart and soul into the music he makes. He'll take you with him through everything he's going through, which is not easy.

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I can tell when one of my songs is played on the radio because everybody just starts calling and texting me. It gets overwhelming because if you don't answer the right ones, they think you hate them, or you're ignoring them and are not friends anymore. It's all kind of crazy.

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'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.

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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?'

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I kind of find humor in everything, even to the point where it's awkward - like, the worst scenarios are the funniest things ever.

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When you put a top on something and try to bottle it, that's when it dies.

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A lot of the time, people think rappers just live inside this bubble. No, the reality is there is conversation that happens. It's not this one-dimensional thing. There's reality that takes place.

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Comedy is a coping mechanism, and it helps us stay alive.

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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.

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Heartbreak is a real thing.

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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.

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Creatively, I'm not one to advocate people knowing every little nuance about you sometimes.

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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.'

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Tokyo style is so specific. And I'm a very big fan of their history. It's pretty simple. A lot of the time, people expect to see the wild style that comes out of Japan, but I think, traditionally, the style is very simple.

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No other mammal is as deceitful as the human being.

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I love being involved with Brainfeeder. I would have never thought that it would have been such an intense involvement.

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That will be on my tombstone: He lived five minutes away from Flying Lotus.

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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.

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I don't think it's corny to pray at all.

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Reading and exercising are two things in life that are not necessary.

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I love Gino Vannelli! I love every one of his albums. He's one of my favourite songwriters - straight up.

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I treat my cat like she's my therapist or something, because I talk to her all the time, and as she's gotten older, she talks back. It's pretty funny.

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When I was younger, I was always a musician that could play by ear better than I could analytically.

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I went to Locke High School in Watts towards the end of the super gangbanging era.

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If you can fart in front of somebody, you know that they love you.

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Brainfeeder makes me want to keep generating better music.

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I actually went to high school with Jay Rock.

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If somebody can make a joke about you on TV, that's so beautiful. You've affected pop culture to that degree.

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I'm so tired of cell phones.

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I love Drake's music.

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You know what? Drake is one of my favorite artists, not just because it's, like, the cool thing to say.

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Money comes and goes. But when you look back on your career, you have be able to answer to yourself, 'Did I make the most of my time on earth?'

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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.

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I can fall asleep in the shower without drowning.

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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.

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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.

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I really love my cat.

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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.

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I started taking the bass more seriously when I heard Jaco Pastorius.

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It feels nice to be able to call Brainfeeder my home. It's giving art the platform. That's what Brainfeeder has always been for me: hope for art.

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I feel like there are things that inspire the music, and then there's the music itself. I don't feel like I always need to force them together.

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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.

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Why do we think the '70s were so awesome? That 'freeness' of music was there.

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Sometimes you gotta get stupid with yourself, and you gotta enjoy your own company some time.

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Hall & Oates is everything.

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I listen to Kenny Loggins, like - I want to be Kenny Loggins.

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It's a privilege to always be able to create.

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Growing up, I always loved working with people. I love playing with people and having that moment of discovering something different. I believe in the magic of what music is.

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I try not to think too hard about music. I like to see where it goes. I try not to give it a direction. I figure out what it is as it's forming. I don't have any goal in mind other than to make the best music I can.

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Songs being nine to 10 minutes long? Everyone is scared to to do it.

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Azealia Banks - love what she's doing.

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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.

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From when I was a kid, I was always very quiet within myself, I was never attention-hungry.

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That's always what I've tried to do. I've tried to communicate. But at the end of the day, it's still for you to understand something. Understand that the world is bigger than you.

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I'm happy to have been around greatness like Kendrick Lamar.

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I feel like music itself is inspirational enough. Especially with the Internet. Not to sound like a shut-in.

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