TERRACE MARTIN  (September 2010) | Interview By: Nima Etminan

..........................................................................................

Interview was conducted in September 2010

..........................................................................................


Terrace Martin // Video Interview // Dubcnn

Press Play to stream the interview (Fast Connections Recommended)



..........................................................................................

Dubcnn: Hey, Terrace!

Terrace Martin: Hey, Nima! *laughs* We've been doing this for years, dog..


Dubcnn: *laughs* Where you at man?

Terrace Martin: I'm at home, far away, somewhere you guys are not!


Dubcnn: It's been a minute since you've been on dubcnn man.

Terrace Martin: It's been like two years! (Editors Note: Interviews in May 2007, August 2007 (3 Parts), June 2008 and February 2010)


Dubcnn: What have you been up to?

Terrace Martin: Working hard man. I went through a bad relationship, I'm heartbroken. We're here to talk about Here, My Dear so let's talk about it Here, My Dear..


Dubcnn: That's the new project coming out September 28th. You got together with Devi Dev to put it out. First of all, what's the concept behind Here, My Dear?

Terrace Martin: I borrowed the concept from Marvin Gaye's album "Here, My Dear". His version was based on his ex-wife and a crazy relationship too, how she stole his creativity and took a lot of the time out of his life. I went through the same things and I was already feeling Marvin Gaye's record since I went through the same situations and just put it towards…

*Hump burps in the background*

Terrace Martin: *laughs*

HHump: *laughs* I forgot you was doing a interview nigga… shit.

Terrace Martin: *laughs* You want me to say that again?


Dubcnn: This dubcnn, it's raw, we're leaving all that shit in there. Go 'head!

Terrace Martin: Well then get him on camera for doing that man! *points at Hump* br>
**everybody laughs*


Dubcnn: So you were saying?

Terrace Martin: It's just based off of a very intense up and down relationship… The first time I've been through some crazy type of stuff in a relationship. That's why I don't fuck with relationships no more.


Dubcnn: So how did you translate that into your music?

Terrace Martin: Uhm…


Dubcnn: I know you're a creative dude so it's hard to explain it…

Terrace Martin: No it's not hard to explain… Whatever situation me and her went through, I got a chance to get the artists in the room and tell them what I wanted. In a weird way, Nima, I was working on this before me and her was over. So everybody was a witness to this shit, anyway! So that's how the shit works dude, it's a bubble of creativity.


Dubcnn: So you're doing all the music?

Terrace Martin: This is the first project where I'm being a real producer. What I mean by being a real producer means that I don't have to sit on the drum machine and do a beat. I can just produce a record. I've got other producers that help me out with certain records, like I've got Kenneth Croutch, he's on the record and co-produced a couple of joints with me and played keyboard on a couple of records. Also Wild Jones from Baltimore, he co-produced the song "Special" with U-N-I that everybody is loving. Mostly I just pulled everybody in.


Dubcnn: So you called on some of your friends to come support you on the record. Who can we expect to hear on Here, My Dear? I know Wiz Khalifa is on the single?

Terrace Martin: Wiz Khalifa is on the single, Overdoz, Kurupt… Yo, real quick, sidebar. Overdoz is the hottest group in Los Angeles, California right now. I'm really trying to promote these kids, they're from the inner city, L.A., but they're positive kids, they're having fun and to me they do the hottest music right now. Overdoz and Kendrick Lamar right now, to me, are the hottest things we have right now. Not to knock nobody else that I've worked with or that I'm friends with that's on the project. But me being a Jazz musician, we were always taught to push a line, but it's like none of us have really pushed the line since Coltrane died.

But Overdoz and Kendrick Lamar, they're pushing the line for Hip-Hop, not just West Coast Hip-Hop. Like I don't even know how to throw up the W with my hand, I think that shit is irrelevant! So Kendrick Lamar and Overdoz are just pushing the line with the music. It's a bar. So anyway, they're on the record a whole lot. Problem of course is on it, he's been a big part of my music. You guys know, me and Problem made a lot of money and royalties together.


Dubcnn: You got the big dogg on there?

Terrace Martin: *nods head* Snoop Dogg is on the project. He co-produced the record with me! And he was around when I was going through this bullshit too. Everybody was around when I was going through this crazy stuff! Now turn the camera to the beautiful young woman, Tiffany!

Tiffany Hobbs: Hello! *waves*

Terrace Martin: She's on the intro. She wrote a poem that touched me so and I decided to put this on the intro. The whole thing is from my perspective and it's a lot of male voices so I just needed some type of woman voice. But it had to be a woman that went through a kind of similar situation, it couldn't be just a random woman, I got a million of them, shouts out to Laquisha, Tweety, Shante, Erica, Pamelita, my homegirl with tattoos on her neck that read "Daddy's Hood". But Tiffany is beautiful too, I mean look at her!

Tiffany Hobbs: Thank You… Terrace wants something, I think! *laughs*


Dubcnn: So how does this project compare to Locke High or Signal Flow?

Terrace Martin: I think this project is more Terrace Martin. I'm playing the horn a lot, I'm doing music, I cried when I did a couple of songs too. I know you guys are gonna send comments saying whatever… I cried a few times on a couple of songs, played the horn, curled up in a ball off a 5th of vodka and everything like that. So this project is more like that.

Signal Flow was more like "Yeah I'm Terrace Martin, Snoop Dogg, Warner Bros, a lot of money, house in the hills!" Locke High too was more like "Yeah I'm Terrace Martin!" Okay I'm that, but I think I'm getting back to really being Terry, myself.


Dubcnn: So you're finding yourself on this one?

Terrace Martin: Yeah, I'm almost there! Can you get him? *points at Ghazi* Get him for the noise please!

*everybody laughs*


Dubcnn: Ghazi!

Terrace Martin: Take a good look at him - that's my Jimmy Iovine now. How about that?


Dubcnn: *laughs* I don't know what the fuck I was saying!

Terrace Martin: Murs is on the project! Yo, Dubcnn, we are having a ball! Look, Kenneth Croutch, Hump, Ghazi, look at the beautiful ladies, we are having a ball! Look what we have here, that's just coincidence, we have Marvin Gaye's "Here, My Dear"!


Dubcnn: You crazy Terrace… So what's your goal with this project? I guess you put a lot of personal thoughts and feelings into this project to work out whatever you went through…

Terrace Martin: My whole new musical goal for everything is that I just wanna be the musical mascot for people being able to be themselves. This is it. At the end of the day, I'm from L.A., the whole Crenshaw, Slauson area. I'm not a gangbanger, I've never been a gangbanger, I was in a marching band, I used to get laughed at in my freshman year of High School for wearing a tight uniform and playing in a marching band and I used to do beats back then. Just be yourself, be happy! I love good food, I love women, I love travelling really far, where you need a little blue book called a passport to get to. I met you in Canada!


Dubcnn: You already know! After this I believe you have a couple of…

Terrace Martin: *points at Kenneth and Hump* Zoom to this guy, he keeps whispering to that guy!


Dubcnn: They talking about something…

Terrace Martin: They talking about me, probably. Ya'll talking about me?

Kenneth Croutch: We're talking about going to 7-11 to get more ice for our goddamn drinks!

Hump: I ain't even thinking about you T! *laughs*

Terrace Martin: You know what's funny? This is the energy I had for "Here, My Dear" and everybody was going through something. The whole point of this is, everybody goes through something. So it's like, somebody said the other "Here, My Dear" is cool T but it ain't like your other stuff, it ain't like that Gangster stuff!" So I said "Well, I get paid to do the gangsta stuff. I didn't get paid to do Here, My Dear. So this is me!" If you just know me from Gangbangin 101 or all the Snoop Dogg records and the gangbanging records I've done…

If you think about it Nima, my shit has always been Jazz! This is just the most truest form of me. And really, I don't wanna burst everybody's bubble, but this is the truest form of everybody on this record too. Everybody, this is the truth. I've always been against the whole bling thing, I don't do music for the bitches, the bentley, the gucci… I'ma have the bitches anyway cause I play Jazz! So… that shit is irrelevant. You can not become hip, you have to be born hip! Here, My Dear, 9-28-10, Sayanora, Good Bye!